Within the Confines of the Mind
by Shadow Oblivion
Summary: Jack Frost thought he had Pitch all figured out, but the conclusions Jack had come to would soon be shattered. The winter spirit was about to see just how terrifying Pitch could be. Jack's mistake of assuming that the Nightmare King wouldn't possibly be capable of following through on previously made threats was a careless error. One that Jack was going to regret.
1. Prologue: Dark Tidings

So...a little explanation for this story before you start reading it. When I posted _Extracting Fear Effectively_, it was meant to be a standalone story with no further chapters. However, after reading one of the reviews, an idea I had in the back of my mind became more fleshed out and I decided to take a chance and post it. This particular story draws from Pitch's threats in EFE, but that's pretty much where similarities between the two stories will end (I'd scan through EFE first only for a reminder of the threats that are alluded to in this one).

I'm warning everyone in advance that it isn't going to be a happy fanfic, and may rub some people the wrong way/upset them. Read this at your own risk, unless you happen to like horror/angst/tragedy in the things you read or want to have your emotions toyed with/become possibly distressed and/ or be horrified for the characters. And no, I'm not trying to be funny. After all, there will be character deaths in this, and the potential of an emotional roller coaster of feelings as the story progresses (that's just my opinion though).

Note 1: AikaRio's review reminded me to go back and fix the year issue in this chapter so that it matches the rest of the story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from _Rise of the Guardians_ or related material. I just happened take some ideas from both of the sources and wrote a darker and more twisted story than most people would maybe want to write (or read).

X-x-x

Jack had been joyously soaring through the air on the wind, reveling in the freedom it gave him. It was a peaceful, late afternoon, and Jack's spirits were high. Creating several spectacular snow storms with resulting snow days could do that to him sometimes. The children's reactions to the snow put Jack in a good mood as well. The happiness Jack felt, however, would soon completely fade away as soon as he set foot in the forest in Burgess, when everything would start to come crumbling down around him.

Jack's plan for that evening would have been to go and visit Jamie, but Jack realized that something seemed to be amiss as soon as he had landed on solid ground. It took the winter spirit a moment before he realized that he couldn't hear any wildlife, and that struck him as strange. It wasn't too frigid out, as it was nearing the end of the winter season. It just wasn't natural that there wouldn't be a call from a bird or the rustling of a small mammal darting across the snowy ground. It was then, as Jack was puzzling over the uncharacteristic behavior of the animals, that he noticed the next thing that appeared to be out of place. In the silence of the forest, he could hear a voice speaking in what sounded like a clear, carefully spoken cadence. Jack blinked in confusion as he leaned on his staff and strained to hear what was being said. Was some kid working on a homework assignment or something? It wouldn't be the first time that a kid had been reciting in the forest what would need to be remembered from memory for a class. That would explain why some of the animals were mute, but not all of them would have been bothered by a child talking aloud in the forest.

The tone of the mystery voice struck Jack as somewhat sinister, and the longer he listened to it, the more uncomfortable Jack became. There was a warning bell going off in the back of his mind, and the winter spirit began to think that perhaps the smartest thing to do at the moment would be to vacate the forest. Before Jack could take to the wind, however, his body suddenly seized up. It was as if the words being spoken had somehow directly caused Jack to become immobile. Jack watched his staff fall out of his hand to clatter to the ground next to him. The pale teen didn't get to think much about being weaponless or how weird it was to not be able to move, as something had caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Jack spotted Pitch emerging from the shadows, and knew immediately that his sudden paralysis had been the Nightmare King's doing. What did he want now? Hadn't trapping Jack in the darkened lair and tormenting him for hours on end been enough?

Granted, it had been two years since that incident had occurred, and in that time Pitch had hardly made a move to do a similar act. Whenever the two of them had met since then, it had mainly resulted in a fierce scuffle of shadows and ice, and then they'd part to tend to any potential injuries the other had caused. Jack supposed that Pitch could have just decided on a whim that today was the day for an overdue dose of torment in the underground realm. Jack smirked inwardly, because, for one reason or another, he didn't seem to be able to make his lips move either. In any case, whatever Pitch had planned wouldn't work, since Jack knew Pitch's game now, and because of that, he wouldn't give in easily to fear. Not this time around.

It was too bad for the pale teen that Pitch had decided it was high time to change the game they had been playing to suit his own needs.

Pitch eyed Jack silently with a guarded expression, his golden eyes assessing the teen to see if there was going to be any attack forthcoming. When no retaliation occurred, Pitch's bland expression became a gleeful one, like he had just spotted a new toy. "Hello, Jack. I'd say it's nice to see you again, but considering every time we meet, you throw your frost at me, perhaps not." The words rolled off smoothly from Pitch's lips as he approached the immobilized teen. His stance was relaxed, like he knew that Jack was, at present, of no threat to him. The Nightmare King chuckled to himself as he observed his prey, seeming inwardly satisfied about something. "It's quite sad how easily it is for me to catch you off guard. I was hoping for a bit of a struggle, but perhaps it is better this way."

Jack still couldn't move, and it was a very strange sensation; one he didn't like one bit. The wind was buffeting him lightly, as if trying to encourage the winter spirit to take to the sky, but Jack found he couldn't will his body to obey the mute suggestion. The pale teen could only stare at Pitch, and the way his tormentor seemed to take delight in his confusion. Pitch's words finally sunk in, and Jack worked his jaw for a moment, ready to tell Pitch off. Thoughts of a snappy comeback died as Jack found that it was hard to even get words to form. What was going on? After a few moments, Jack finally managed to grit out, "Pitch…what…did you do?"

"Oh good, the enslavement spell I found doesn't entirely cut off speech. How lovely." This little tidbit of information seemed to please Pitch immensely, before he rolled his shoulder in a shrug, as if the idea wasn't quite so pleasing when he thought about it, "Well, either way, the longer the spell is in effect, the less you'll be able to do on your own." Pitch came forward at a leisurely pace, hands clasped behind his back, "Remember what I said to you, Frost? About finding a way to follow through on my threats? To make them a reality?" Pitch picked up the staff that had fallen out of Jack's hand, and looked at the other with a predatory gleam in his eyes, "I've found the perfect way to go through with it." Pitch held the staff within reach of Jack, and spoke curtly, "Take a hold of it." Pitch held the staff loosely, watching Jack in anticipation.

Jack felt a stab of fear as he saw his right hand reach out and close over his staff without him willing it to. Jack mutely watched as his arm settled the staff against the ground, before going still again. What the hell was going on? The winter spirit had felt his arm move, but he hadn't made it move. A horrible thought took root in Jack's mind as he realized that Pitch had mentioned something about an enslavement spell. No. Pitch didn't. He wouldn't. He wasn't so twisted that he would do that to someone. The Nightmare King wouldn't go that far, just to draw fear out of him. Jack made eye contact with a darkly smiling Pitch, and the enormity of what had happened hit the pale teen hard, and Jack was rattled so badly that he could only breathe the word "No" in a hoarse, terrified whisper.

"I think you'll find my plans for the remainder of the day quite straightforward. We'll be paying the Tooth Fairy a visit, of course. It's a part of my threat after all." Pitch spread his hands wide, a smirk evident on his face as he continued in a mock serious tone, "But then I thought, why not visit the rest of the Guardians? It doesn't seem fair that only Tooth would be graced with our…company." Pitch held out one long-fingered hand expectantly, enjoying the fact he could see the emotions swirling in Jack's eyes. "Come along now, Jack. Let's go say hello to Toothiana."

Jack panicked inwardly as he struggled to prevent his own body from responding to Pitch's words. This had to be a nightmare. It was just too terrible to be real. The loss of motor control was disturbing to Jack, even more so due to the fact that he could still feel every movement his body made.

"Jack? Let's not keep Tooth waiting. I'm sure she's _dying_ to see you," Pitch drawled, hand still extended in Jack's direction.

Jack could only watch in dawning horror as he found himself slowly taking steps forward. The winter spirit saw that Pitch smiling triumphantly, and Jack experienced a thrill of horror race up his spine as he came to a halt before Pitch.

This was a nightmare, one that Jack didn't seem to be able to wake up from, or shut his eyes to. He was going to be forced to see all of what the Nightmare King had in store the rest of the day, and there was nothing that Jack could do that would stop it.

X-x-x

So…let's just say I liked how Pitch could use spells in the book series, and while he turned the other characters into toys, they still were compelled to answer his questions. So…I thought why not another kind of enslavement spell?

...I'm sorry Jack. I think I'm going to be writing humor fics in the future for quite awhile to make up for this story.

The next chapter will be where Pitch follows through on his threats that were mentioned in EFE, and then some. I think the next chapter and the very last chapter are the worst (read: emotionally wrenching) of the entire story. There will be twelve chapters total: ten main ones, plus the prologue and epilogue.

If you decide to review, (follow/whatever) it'd be helpful to know whether the characters are IC, and what you think of the story as I update it (and yes, I already know that I'm being terrible to the characters). I could potentially post the next chapter tomorrow, after editing it, but it'd end with a cliffhanger...so I may delay it a bit and finish the chapter after it to avoid that, 'cause I hate cliffhangers.


	2. Ch 1: Loss of Control

-crawls under a rock to hide-

Disclaimer: See previous chapter. The warning in the first A/N still stands, especially for this. I have to admit that I had a hard time writing this chapter, as it upset me quite a bit.

X-x-x

Jack watched the Nightmare King circle him for a moment, before Jack felt a hand drop down to rest lightly on one of his shoulders. Jack wanted to shudder at the contact, but found that even that kind of reaction couldn't be done on his own. Pitch really did have complete control over his body with that spell he had used. Except for his eyes, and Jack found his eyes' movement was limited in any case. Maybe it was some sick gesture of Pitch's to allow him to fully see what was going on around him.

Jack failed to tense up as Pitch guided him along gently toward some shadows between a few trees. Jack was unnerved as they phased through the shadows easily, and the winter spirit didn't think he'd ever get used to the way Pitch chose to travel. It had seemed like Pitch had taken delight in having him drop through shadows on occasion when they fought. Jack tensed again when he saw that they had emerged into an area near the Tooth Palace.

Jack's panic was starting to rise. This was really happening. Pitch was actually following through on his threats after all these years. Jack could have sworn Pitch was all talk, but with what was happening...Jack was standing still now, and he could see Tooth's mini fairies darting to and fro from the nearby structures. The need to flee became more prevalent, but Jack's body made no outward movement.

A hand curled around one of Jack's upper arms, and Pitch breathed into his ear, "I think I'll have you go take care of Tooth now, and do try to be quiet while you do it." A horrible smile split Pitch's face as he watched Jack fly off on the wind without a word in the direction of the Tooth Palace.

X-x-x

Toothiana was busy as she always was, so she didn't see Jack coming into view. Tooth was flitting back and forth, calling out suggestions and requests to her mini fairies, completely wrapped up in her work. Tooth's attention was drawn from her current fawning over a tiny tooth one of her fairies had brought in, when one Baby Tooth started up a long series of cheeps. Tooth handed the tooth over for it to be placed in a case, and turned to see what the causing one of her fairies to be so vocal.

Baby Tooth, seeing that she had gotten Tooth's attention, zipped around her head a few times, before the tiny fairy angled in the direction she wanted the Tooth Fairy to look in.

Tooth tilted her head, and she brightened when she saw what Baby Tooth was trying to show her. Tooth's feathers flared out a little before dropping back into place as she caught sight of her fellow Guardian.

Baby Tooth darted forward toward the winter spirit, chirping excitedly.

Jack saw that Baby Tooth, Toothiana, and many of the other mini fairies had caught sight of him, and was mutely trying to urge them away, but knew it was useless. He landed lightly on one of the lower structures, and heard the cheerful chirp of a Baby Tooth making a direct beeline for him.

Before Baby Tooth reached Jack, she suddenly stopped short, an uncertain peep emitting from her when she realized that Jack wasn't smiling at her like he normally would have when he saw her. Baby Tooth darted back and forth uncertainly, especially after seeing Jack's blank face. She chirped a little in alarm when she finally decided to look into the winter spirit's eyes. The look her friend was giving her frightened her. It was a pleading look that was tinged with fear. That wasn't normal. Baby Tooth couldn't look away, so she started to cheep ceaselessly in alarm.

"Jack?" Tooth flew quickly to be near Baby Tooth, reaching out in an attempt to calm the distressed fairy.

The mini fairy flew out of reach, working herself into a tizzy with how wrong it was for Jack not to be smiling. Baby Tooth was very worried for Jack, but some sixth sense was warning her to leave before something happened. But she wasn't leaving without Tooth. She needed to leave, and get to the other Guardians. Baby Tooth cheeped, but failed to get Tooth's attention. This distressed the little fairy, so she shot off in an attempt to get the other tiny fairies to leave.

Tooth turned her attention to Jack when she found she was unable to calm Baby Tooth. Tooth peered at him closely, concerned when she saw his expressionless face and how still he was standing, "Jack, what's wrong? Are you okay?" She hovered closer to Jack, checking him over for any potential injuries that would have caused him to behave like this. Finding nothing, she flitted closer and rested a hand on Jack's shoulder gently, a feeling of dread taking hold in the back of her mind, as a thought occurred to her, "Did Pitch do something, Jack?" The continued silence made the feeling increase, and Tooth peered wordlessly into Jack's eyes, a small gasp escaping her. What greeted her sight was even worse than when Jack had given her a haunted look after Pitch had tormented him decades ago.

Jack wanted to shove Tooth away from her and scream at her to fly away as quickly as she could. Not to be so close, touching him and within reach of him. Jack didn't know what exactly he was going to do, but he knew that it was going to be far worse than what Pitch would have done had he been planning to attack Tooth himself. Since Jack couldn't speak, he tried to communicate with his eyes, and found that Tooth finally got the message that she was in danger, and there was nothing he could do to help her, because he _was_ the danger. Jack's eyes widened in horror when he felt Pitch urging him to attack Tooth already, and he let loose a silent cry of protest as his body moved to obey the silent command.

Tooth barely had any time to react, as Jack's staff struck out with no warning, knocking her away and into the air, where she gasped as frost settled across her chest. The mini fairies, seeing this, all started to flutter about in a panic, chirping and cheeping in alarm. A low chuckle caught her attention, and Tooth quickly spotted Pitch lounging against a nearby wall in the shadows. Tooth's attention was drawn from Jack as her feathers flared in outrage, "Pitch! What have you done?"

Pitch smiled in a rather mocking way, obviously pleased with himself, "I don't have any idea what you could possibly be talking about. Maybe Jack just decided after all these years that being a Guardian wasn't worth it anymore."

Tooth's eyes flashed dangerously, "Jack would never think something like that." She darted toward Pitch, launching forth several weapons at the Nightmare King, "I'm not going to even give you a time frame this time. You stop whatever you're doing to Jack now, or I'll make sure you regret doing this to a fellow Guardian in my presence."

Pitch melded into the shadows out of range of the attack, and his voice echoed all around, "I don't think you will be able to make me regret anything. After all, I'm not the one your attention should be on."

Tooth had no time to respond, as a sudden blast of frigid ice and frost hit her, encasing her wings in ice. Tooth dropped out of the air with an alarmed cry, collapsing to the platform of one of the structures. She struggled to right herself, and found Jack landing a few paces away from her. Tooth shook her head, "Please, Jack. Don't let Pitch do this. You're stronger than that. You stood up to him once, so do that again. Don't give him what he wants." Even as she spoke, Tooth knew, deep down, that no amount of pleading with Jack was going to stop him, since it appeared that it wasn't in his power to do so. Whatever Pitch had done to the winter spirit had such a strong compulsion over him that it made Jack helpless to resist.

Jack approached her, and as he made motions to start a new attack, Tooth focused on the panicked and pained expression in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jack. I guess we didn't take care of you as well as we thought we had."

Jack felt unshed tears form as Tooth's last words rang in his ears as he went in to finish things with bursts of ice and the swing of his staff.

"I don't blame you, Jack, this isn't your fault."

Pitch, nearby, closed his eyes and basked in the fear, despair and loss coming from Jack and the terror coming from Tooth's mini fairies. Pitch's lips twisted. He supposed it never crossed Tooth's mind that the Nightmare King would do such a thing to a Guardian. The fear increased tenfold as the mini fairies watched their leader fall, and Pitch allowed himself to be swept up in the resulting waves of fear. Once the fear from Tooth vanished, Pitch stepped languidly out of the shadows, sending sand arrows forth to strike the mini fairies out of the sky. Pitch batted aside another fairy attempting to attack him, and called up to Jack, "If you'd help me dispatch these little feathered nuisances, we will continue on to out next destination."

Pitch stopped his own attack and watched in sadistic pleasure as Jack flash froze the mini fairies with short bursts of ice from his staff. The peeping became increasingly terrified, but soon vanished altogether, as did the sound of fluttering of wings.

Baby Tooth, the one who had first spotted Jack, had hidden herself as soon as the attack had begun. Her tiny heart was beating rapidly as she looked in horror at what had become of her family. She kept silent, willing herself to cut off her fear. Baby Tooth's wings drooped against her back as she knew it would be a death sentence should she show herself, or to have Pitch pick up on her fear. Baby Tooth shivered, but luckily for her, it seemed like Pitch oblivious to her presence as he focused on Jack.

Smiling happily, Pitch strode forward to where Jack stood, and he remembered with fiendish delight that the winter spirit disliked it when he came too near. Pitch leaned in close as the fear and pain rising from the mute Jack rose in its intensity. Pitch propped his head on Jack's shoulder as he breathed in the fear, observing the still form of Tooth over Jack's shoulder, "I bet the terror in her eyes would have been a wonderful thing to see up close." Pitch tilted his head to glance at Jack, and smiled widely when he saw a flash of anger and hurt in Jack's eyes, "What? Do you have something to say, Jack? Or can you not speak anymore?"

Jack squirmed uncomfortably at Pitch's touch and his close proximity, though outwardly he was still immobile. The pale teen found that he could talk again, though it was difficult to form the words, and they ended up coming out a little roughly, "You'll pay…for this…"

"Oh? And why is that? It wasn't like_ I_ was the one who killed Tooth and all of her little fairies." Pitch stated in tone of injured dignity, stepping away from Jack.

"Your…fault." Jack responded, ice blue eyes dancing with rage now. How dare Pitch try and blame him for this. He would never have harmed his friends willingly. It was the Nightmare King's fault, and trying to play himself of as innocent made a cold anger take place in the pale teen's gut.

"Hush. I think I'll ask you to be quiet now." Pitch smiled at the frustration in Jack's eyes, and was ready to take Jack away from the Tooth Palace, when he sensed something. A twisted smile crossed his lips, "Oh, it seems we've overlooked someone." Pitch reached into a nearby shadow with a quick motion. When he pulled his hand back into view, he held Baby Tooth clenched tightly in his fist, the tiny fairy chirping in a mixture of anger and alarm.

Pitch gave the fairy an unimpressed look, "What? You didn't think that I could sense your fear? You were broadcasting it quiet clearly before you tried to stop it." Pitch gritted his teeth as Baby Tooth began to repeatedly ram her beak into skin, but Pitch merely laughed through the little flashes of pain, "You caught me by surprise the other time you did that, but not this time." The motions continued with an indignant peep. Pitch squeezed a bit to stop the attack, and turned to Jack. With a swift movement, he tossed Baby Tooth into the air, "Dispose of this so we can take our leave."

Jack cried out in mute horror as he felt his hands raise the staff to point at the flailing Baby Tooth. The terrified look in her eyes as she gave a tiny shake of her head, coupled with her expression, tugged at Jack's heartstrings. No. No, no, no. Baby Tooth gave a small, mournful chirp, before she was struck with ice. Jack watched as she fell from view, and he felt like he was being pulled in all directions on the inside as he tried to convince himself that the fairies would thaw out and be okay.

Pitch spared the briefest of glances to follow Baby Tooth's falling progress, before he rounded on Jack, acting as though the incident with Baby Tooth hadn't just occurred, "Come with me now. We have a busy schedule for the rest of the evening and the night." Pitch patted the other's shoulder, pleased that he received nothing more than a hostile glare. Pitch gripped Jack's upper arm loosely, and tugged the compliant winter spirit toward the waiting shadows, "Let's go see the other Guardians, shall we?" Pitch bared his teeth in a sharp smile, "I believe I'll save your demise for the very last. I could use some back up when dealing with the others."

Pitch perked up, as though he had just remembered something, "Ah, yes, and you know how I told you that I shouldn't be able to have much influence over you for very long?" Pitch slid a glance in Jack's direction, enjoying the nervous look that had appeared in the ice blue eyes, replacing the cold anger. Pitch continued, relishing the effect his words had on the pale teen, "I lied. I found the perfect spell; one where you're only released from my control when I allow it."

Jack's desperation began to grow as Pitch led him through the shadows, and the pale teen's desire to break free of what Pitch had done to him intensified at the thought of running into the other Guardians. None of them would have any idea what had happened to Tooth. Nor what had happened to Jack, for that matter, until it was too late.

X-x-x

It took Pitch some three hours to figure out where the Sandman was, even with the help of some of his Nightmares looking around. As soon as Pitch locked on to Sandy's location, Pitch dismissed the Nightmares. He didn't want to alert the Sandman of his presence. No, Sandy would only be seeing Jack, and Pitch was counting on Jack's condition to distract Sandy, and in that distracted state, allow the Nightmare King to take Sandy down with ease.

Pitch turned to Jack, who was perfectly still and eerily silent. Pitch indicated the distant golden sand in the air, before pointing to a nearby telephone pole. "Go over there and wait. No talking. I want this to go off without any hitches."

Jack silently took to the wind, heading for the telephone pole, Pitch's soft laughter following him as he flew.

X-x-x

The Sandman found the quiet evening a little out of the ordinary, but nothing to be too concerned over. As he sent streams of golden sand out to give dreams to the children in the area, he felt a cool breeze pass by him. The Sandman turned, knowing that a sudden cold burst of wind usually meant that Jack was paying him a visit. He enjoyed their conversations, and had been delighted that Jack had gotten quiet good at making out the sand pictures he put forth over his head to communicate. It made the talks go over smoothly, and it was nice when he didn't have to make too much of an effort to get his thoughts across.

Sandy turned to greet his fellow Guardian with a flurry of sand images, but found that Jack wasn't as close as he had thought. Sandy gave a little shrug, and drifted over to where the winter spirit was resting on a telephone pole, staff resting over one shoulder. Sandy gave a little wave, deaf to the wordless calls coming from the immobile teen, who was trying to urge him to stay away.

Jack felt the horrible sense of dejavu as he saw Sandy getting closer. Jack could only stay where he was crouched, as his body wouldn't make a move until Pitch told him to. Jack wanted to get the precariousness of the situation across to Sandy more quickly than he had with Tooth, in the hopes that the Sandman would understand the silent plea.

Sandy had already gotten the sense that something was wrong as soon as he got a good look at Jack. The pale teen was expressionless, like he was exhausted and ready to topple over. The little man wondered if Jack had gotten into a fight with Pitch that evening. Sandy didn't see any immediate danger around either himself or Jack, so he peered more closely at his friend. A sand image of a question mark appeared over Sandy's head, followed by an image of a snowflake and one of Pitch, sending the message of wondering whether Jack and Pitch had fought recently.

The silent Guardian received no response, and that put him on guard. Something was very wrong. No matter how tired Jack could have been, he would have said something, even if it was only a hand full of words. Since Jack's expression gave him no clues, Sandy looked into Jack's eyes. The little man's eyes widened as he clearly saw the look of absolute terror in Jack's eyes. That was not an expression that Sandy had ever expected to see from Jack. Something was definitely wrong, more so than Sandy had initially thought and he grew more concerned when the look in Jack's eyes changed into one of shock and horror. It was then that the Sandman felt something strike him between the shoulder blades with unerring accuracy. The familiar sensation sent a quiver through the Guardian's body as the realization of what had just hit him.

Jack screamed soundlessly as he watched Pitch strike the Sandman with a black sand arrow. Jack watched, sick to his stomach as the golden sand around his friend began to change to black. Pitch sending him to distract Sandy had worked, and Jack could only watch as Pitch had slunk up from behind and made the motions of releasing an arrow. Jack felt even worse when he and Sandy locked gazes again.

There was anger in Sandy's eyes as he rounded on Pitch, letting the gloating male know that he disapproved of what the Nightmare King was doing to his friend. The Sandman turned back to look at Jack one last time, and offered a look of sorrow for what the pale teen was going through. Mustering as much dignity as he could, Sandy stood tall as he vanished beneath the black sand, most likely never to return.

Pitch had nothing to say, and merely waved a hand for Jack to get down from the telephone pole. Jack was distressed to find that even wordless gestures made him do as the other wanted. Jack didn't think things could possibly get any more emotionally damaging than what had already happened.

He was wrong.

X-x-x

Jack's continued dread grew, so did his fear, as he and Pitch emerged from the shadows at the North Pole to pay North a 'visit.'

Pitch wanted to savor the moment, so he didn't have them enter North's home directly from the shadows. Instead, they were outside the entrance, where the yetis discovered them in short order.

Phil was the first of the yetis to realize that something was obviously wrong. He was in charge of watching the entrance that day, and nothing of note had happened that evening, until now. Phil was understandably suspicious when he saw the curious sight that was before him. The fact that Jack was doing nothing to stop Pitch as the two headed for the entrance together caused the yeti to know that something was up. Phil gave a low growl, and lifted the weapon he held in his hands. He instinctively knew that warnings needed to be made. Not taking his eyes off of either of the two beings before him, Phil let out a rapid bark of warning that was taken up by the yetis within hearing, taking the shouts all the way back to where North was likely to be, in his workshop.

Pitch wore a bored look on his face as he spoke in mock fright to the pale teen next to him, "Oh, whatever shall we to do? Those brutes will give us such trouble with those awful weapons of theirs. We're really only here for North, but if they insist in getting in our way…" The act was dropped in an instant, and Pitch spoke in a dangerous tone, "They really aren't worth the trouble. Take care of them, would you Frost? I want to save my energy for North." Pitch watched with gleefully glittering eyes as Jack flash froze each of the yetis that came near them, encasing Phil in a block of ice as the yeti charged toward them. Pitch walked with a little spring in his step as he passed the frozen creatures, gesturing imperiously for Jack to follow him, "I'm sure North has been properly informed of our presence. We shouldn't keep him waiting."

Jack followed Pitch, even as his mind protested, knowing what was coming. The helplessness of his position was terrifying, but Jack's frustration with this was starting to take root. Pitch likely knew this, but chose to ignore Jack's emotional distress in favor of the confrontation that was about to occur. As the two of them entered the room with the globe, Pitch directed Jack to freeze the elves that came nearby. Jack was disgusted by this, as a majority of the elves were oblivious to the danger he presented to them. A few were even offering food and drinks as his staff reached out and froze those who came within his reach.

Pitch found it faintly amusing that the stupid little things didn't even realize the danger they were facing. Though, after seeing their fellows frozen, the dumb little creatures had enough sense to scatter and make themselves scarce.

"Jack!"

The disbelieving voice of North sounded from the right, as the large man approached the now immovable Jack and the pleasantly smiling Pitch. North's grip on the weapons in his hands tightened as he shot a look between Pitch and Jack. North immediately caught sight of the look in Jack's eyes, and he rounded on Pitch, his voice carrying a dangerous note, "What have you done?"

Jack realized that North knew exactly what Pitch had done, and was obviously very upset with the Nightmare King.

"I figured it wouldn't be much fun to do it to you, North. After all, you made a terrible toy all those years ago. You were a horrid conversationalist too." Pitch slid up next to Jack and draped an arm over Jack's shoulders, leering at North, "I found a much better spell to use after all these years, and I quite like the effect it has. Complete awareness of what he does under my command, while being helpless stop himself. Such a wonderful little spell, wouldn't you agree?"

North leveled a sword at Pitch, in no mood to mince words, "You let Jack go, Pitch. I am thinking that takes things too far."

Pitch looked as if he was giving the other man's words serious thought, before he shook his head and tightened his grip around Jack's shoulders, "No, I don't think I will." Pitch fell away from Jack with a chuckle as North made no response other than to come charging at him.

Jack stood helplessly rooted to the spot as the fight raged before him. Jack came to realize the worried looks thrown his way throughout the fight and the sorrowful look in North's eyes were the Guardian of wonder's way of apologizing to him. That he and the rest of the Guardians had failed the winter spirit in a terrible way by not realizing that Pitch would do anything like this.

As the battle dragged on, Pitch decided that he had had enough fun, and that he was in slight danger of North causing him some kind of injury. Pitch gave North a wolfish smile, "Oh Jack, come over here, would you.? You like to have fun, don't you?" Pitch snickered as North barely dodged a blast of frigid frost. The Nightmare King brought forth a sand scythe, and between the sweep of his blade and Jack's icy attacks, Pitch could tell that North was beginning to wear down.

Jack found himself sending pleading looks in North's direction every time they clashed with their weapons or dodged by one another. He wondered if the other Guardian would be able to stop him, even if that meant hurting him in the process. It would be worth it, even if he was badly wounded. Even knocking Pitch out to take his control over Jack away would work. Jack wanted this hellish torment to come to an end.

The looks Jack had been sending North, however, had unfortunately caused the man to hesitate. North knew he should have tried to incapacitate Jack, but found that he couldn't bring himself to strike his friend, even though he knew the danger he was in. This hesitation and conflicting emotions between the right thing to do and the consequences of doing such a thing to the winter spirit, allowed for Pitch to swoop in from behind and land a heavy strike of his sand scythe.

Jack watched in wordless horror as North collapsed to the floor without a sound, weapons sliding out of his suddenly limp grasp. He didn't rise up to continue the fight, as Jack expected him to. He didn't move, and Jack felt fear start to overtake him as he silently pleaded with the limp form of North to get up. To help him fix what was happening. To stop him and Pitch from causing any more harm. Jack's pleas went unheard, of course, and his hope that Pitch hadn't struck a critical blow soon faded as the minutes ticked by. No. No, no, no, no. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't…North couldn't be gone. He was strong, a little thing like that shouldn't have…

Pitch sent the scythe away with a flick of his hand, and he stared down wordlessly at his fallen opponent. Then, without a backwards glance, he strode over to Jack, gripping the other's arm and tugging him along once more through the shadows, leaving behind any remaining elves and yetis at a loss of what to do.

Jack stumbled along in Pitch's grasp, despairing that he wasn't even capable crying for the loss of his friends with the state he was in. The winter spirit's face was expressionless, as it had been since Pitch had put the spell on him. Only his eyes could convey his emotions, and they were full of sadness and unshed tears.

Pitch didn't notice this, as he was trying to figure out the best way to confront Bunnymund. The Nightmare King knew that Bunnymund was going to be harder to defeat, and he needed to approach this carefully.

X-x-x

Jack watched as Bunnymund came out of a hole in the ground back into the Warren, and Jack could tell, from his expression, that the Guardian of hope had just found out what had happened. Jack was afraid that Bunnymund was going to blame him for what happened, but mentally kicked himself for thinking in such a way. Surely Bunnymund would figure out what had happened, and that Jack never would have hurt the other Guardians in the way he had found them.

Bunnymund went to pacing his Warren, trying to decide on a course of action. He was in shock, of course, but a burning rage soon filled him. He was so upset that he hadn't even realized that Pitch and Jack were already there, waiting for him. Bunny had gotten a sense of unease when he had noticed that none of Tooth's fairies had come for teeth in a city he had been wandering in. At first he had believed it was an oversight, but when he checked a few more places and found many more unclaimed teeth, Bunnymund went to the Tooth Palace.

Bunnymund paused in his pacing, shaking his head. What he had found was too terrible for words, and it far was worse because it looked to be completely Jack's doing. Bunny felt ashamed that he had believed for even an instant that Jack could have done such a thing. Bunny's mind locked on to what had happened as soon as he had come across some still fairies that had a thin trail of black sand over them. Bunny's teeth had ground in agitation as the pieces fell into place. He had stomped the ground and dropped into the hole, racing to go and check on Sandy and North. He was horrified to find the other two Guardians in similar states, with evidence of both Pitch and Jack's presence.

Bunny's nose twitched, his ears raising as he heard something. He spun about, thoughts of the past driven from his mind as Bunnymund threw a boomerang to knock Jack's staff wide, avoiding getting his body frozen by the resulting ice and frost. Bunnymund wasted no time in acting. Quick as a flash, Bunny drew his other weapon and charged not at Pitch, but at Jack, clashing against the winter spirit's staff hard, successfully driving the weapon from the other's grasp. Bunny locked eyes with Jack, blinking in a sort of acknowledgment of understanding of the winter spirit's precarious situation, before Bunny lashed out with one long hind leg, striking Jack squarely in the chest.

Ignoring Pitch's hiss of displeasure, Bunnymund used the momentum of the kick to drive Jack backwards to the ground, where one clawed hind leg quickly turned the stunned teen onto his stomach, before the foot rested lightly but firmly on Jack's back, keeping him from retaliating. With Jack out of the picture for the time being, Bunny locked eyes with Pitch, a dangerous growl in his voice, "I didn't think you were actually capable of doing this. An enslavement spell? That's low, even for you, ya shadowy rat fink."

Pitch still looked displeased at how effortlessly Bunny had disabled Jack, before he smirked, brushing off the insult, "Why not? It's such a wonderful way to get what I want. Otherwise it could have taken me years of taking you Guardians out, which would have given the rest of you a chance to gather and retaliate."

"How about I even the odds then? I'll bet he would be more than happy to help me take you out." Bunnymund indicated the prone Jack beneath one of his paws, before he completely ignored Pitch in favor of muttering something other his breath in as rapid a way as he could without stumbling over the words. Bunny only hoped he could finish in time.

Pitch's eyes flashed as he saw Jack twitch, and the Nightmare King listened for a moment in disbelief. The meddling Guardian was trying to cast a counter spell on Jack. Pitch hadn't even known that Bunnymund would even know of such a thing, and where on earth he could have picked it up from.

Jack, though his chest hurt terribly from the kick Bunny had landed on him, felt the first stirrings of hope when he felt himself be able to twitch his fingers on his own. Bunnymund was somehow breaking through the spell that Pitch had put on him. Jack's short lived happiness at making a move on his own was short lived, as Bunnymund let out a grunt of pain amidst a snapping sound. The weight was lifted from Jack's back, and his skin crawled as he felt a hand drop onto his shoulder, and a different voice start to mutter. Jack almost cried out in despair when his own movements ceased.

"Get up."

Jack's hope shattered as he realized Pitch had stopped whatever Bunnyund had been trying to do to help him. When Jack felt himself rise, he could feel the aching in his chest, and the pain it cause him reflected in his eyes. Jack saw Bunnymund struggling to get back up, and Jack realized that Pitch had broken the leg that had been pinning him down.

Pitch was furious. He had never imagined that the blasted creature would have been able to almost pull Jack from his control. Pitch ignored Bunnymund painfully bracing himself on one hind leg, ready to do some damage. Instead, the Nightmare King locked eyes with Jack, "Freeze him. Now."

Jack's eyes met Bunnymund's as he raised his staff level at his wounded friend. He felt grief wash over him as Bunny gave him an uncharacteristically defeated look, before the gaze softened minimally and the Guardian stated something similar to what Tooth had said.

"Not your fault, mate."

Jack wanted to close his eyes to what was about to happen, but couldn't, and was forced to see himself freeze Bunnymund in a solid prison of ice and frost, the point where he could no longer make out any shape of the Guardian who had been standing there moments before. Jack waited in place, hoping that this meant that Pitch was going to destroy him now that the rest of the Guardians were gone.

He was wrong, again. Pitch did something far worse, and he did it in two ways that completely floored Jack.

Pitch waved a hand lazily through the air, calling up shadows and black sand, before sending it toward the frozen Bunnymund with vicious accuracy.

Jack watched in utter shock as Pitch used the black sand and shadows to shatter the block of ice into numerous shards. Jack was numb with disbelief as the pieces settled on the ground, that he hadn't noticed his enemy approaching him.

Pitch invaded Jack's personal space again, breathing in deeply the shocked fear and horror rising from within the winter spirit. "Didn't think I'd actually do that, did you? I might have left him to freeze to death, but what with him trying to take you from my grasp…" Pitch picked up a tiny shard near his feet and twirled it around in his hand, "I guess I couldn't stop myself."

Pitch allowed himself to bask in Jack's overwhelming fear. Once he was satisfied, however, Pitch melded back into the shadows, and surprised the last Guardian by releasing him from his control. Pitch watched gleefully as Jack collapsed to the ground with a strangled, horrific cry,"I think I'll deal with you later, Jack." Pitch stated simply, vanishing from the Warren and leaving behind a broken and now sobbing Jack next to the shattered pieces of ice that had once been one of his friends.

X-x-x

-peeks out from underneath the rock-

I did say that this was going to be the worst chapter of the whole story, didn't I? I don't even know how well I kept the characterizations of the characters by the end of this. This is likely to be the longest chapter of the entire story. I really hope this chapter would still be considered T, as I think I avoided anything graphic.

I am going to finish editing the next chapter and post it so that I'm not leaving you guys stuck with this terrible end to a chapter.

I don't know if many people will be interested in this fic as a result of what's just happened, so opinions (reviews)/favs/follows would give me a good indication of how it is going.

I do appreciate the reviews/favs/follows this story already got after barely posting it, though at the moment I feel bad for writing this chapter. At the same time, strangely enough, I'm finding that it's helping me to improve on my writing skills.


	3. Ch 2: Just a dream

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

X-x-x

Jack Frost bolted up with a horrified cry, toppling out of the tree he had gone to sleep on. His back pressed against the nearest tree as his hand darted to his chest, breathing heavily and shaking from the absolute and utter terror he had experienced. Trembling, Jack settled the staff next to his side, wrapping his arms around himself as he tried to get his breathing under control; it was a difficult task to accomplish, as the vivid nightmare lingered. Jack didn't usually sleep much, and it was a rather dastardly thing for Pitch to do to take advantage of one of the few times he had actually fallen into a dead sleep.

Jack ran a hand shakily through his hair with a low, drawn out sigh. A nightmare. It had only been a nightmare. A horrifying, never ending nightmare. The pale teen could remember exactly what had transpired, as if he had physically lived through that terrible illusion of assisting to destroy the Guardians while under Pitch's control. The wrenching way Jack had been helpless to stop himself.

Jack shook his head and, after picking his staff up and clutching to his chest, he let out a shaky breath. Jack didn't trust himself to take to the wind just yet, nor did know whether he could go and face the Guardians; to admit he had let his guard down around Pitch.

A little chirping peep caught Jack's attention, and he looked up. The sight of Baby Tooth alive and well caused tears to form in the winter spirit's eyes. It had been a terrible thing for Pitch to make him harm a dream Baby Tooth like that. That had been utterly cruel and unnecessary.

Baby Tooth was fluttering before Jack, and as soon as she caught sight of his unshed tears, she started to peep and flew in close. The tiny fairy landed on his shoulder, her distress evident.

"Hey Baby Tooth." Jack managed to say, though his voice was a bit raspy, and he realized with a jolt that while he had been asleep, he must have been screaming aloud, so much so that his throat felt raw. Jack stroked Baby Tooth gently, avoiding causing frost to form on her fine feathers, "I think I'm okay. Maybe." Jack took in another shuddering breath as he felt a tiny hand pat the curve of his jaw. Jack broke into a small smile at the gesture, "It was horrible, Baby Tooth. I didn't think that Pitch would do something like that."

Baby Tooth made a questioning chirp, settling down in the corner of Jack's hood, near his throat, head tilted to the side.

Jack shook his head, "It was a nightmare. I had a very drawn out nightmare, and I have no idea how long it was. I fought against the Guardians because Pitch was making me, and I couldn't do anything about it."

Baby Tooth made an alarmed peep, and Jack realized that her attention was on something in the surrounding dark of the trees. Jack spotted a Nightmare watching him with glowing orange eyes, and Jack reacted in a way that left Baby Tooth shocked.

Instead of attacking the Nightmare, Jack took to the sky, wanting to put as much distance between him and the Nightmare, because he had no idea whether Pitch was around or not. He hadn't realized that the sudden movement had jostled Baby Tooth from her perch.

Baby Tooth caught herself in the air and righted herself. After one last look at the stationary Nightmare hiding behind some of the forest trees, the tiny fairy darted after the winter spirit. Baby Tooth had a bit of a struggle to keep up as Jack soared through the sky. She breathed a tiny sigh of relief as Jack landed lightly on top of Jamie's house, staff against the ground as he sought to catch his breath and push down the fright the sight the Nightmare had given him.

Jack smiled reassuringly at Baby Tooth, who fluttered around his head in confusion at Jack's actions, "Hey, calm down, Baby Tooth. I'm fine…I guess that nightmare is still with me. Sorry." Jack dropped down to Jamie's windowsill and pushed the window open a little to peer inside. Jack was inwardly relieved to see that Jamie was sleeping peacefully, and that he appeared to not have been disturbed by Pitch. Jack frowned, wondering if Pitch had been so pleased to catch a Guardian in a nightmare that he hadn't even bothered to step away and give some children nightmares as well. Jack turned to leave, when a small voice stopped him.

"Jack?"

Jack glanced over his shoulder to find Jamie sitting up in bed, a sleepy look on his face. For once, Jack wasn't sure what to do, as the residual feelings from the nightmare remained, and he found it too much of an effort to try and smile cheekily.

Baby Tooth stayed outside the house to let Jamie try and cheer Jack up, as the winter spirit stepped into the bedroom. She perched on the windowsill, wings fluttering ever now and then as she waited.

Jamie ran a hand over blurry eyes, blinking and taking a closer look at Jack. The younger boy noticed that something wasn't quite right about the other. Jack looked like he was trying very hard not to cry, and was attempting to hide the fact from him, "Jack? Did something happen? Did Pitch come back?"

Jack quickly shook his head, and finally managed to flash a mischievous grin at Jamie, "Pitch won't be doing anything big like he did before for years. Maybe never. I just had a nightmare 'cause I let my guard down. It won't happen again."

Jamie looked surprised, "I didn't know you could get nightmares, Jack."

Jack shrugged, finding it easier to squash unwanted emotions away now, "Yeah, I didn't think so either, so I'll just have to be careful next time I take a nap in a tree."

Jamie relaxed, glad to see Jack back to his more cheerful self, "That can't be comfortable at all."

Jack smirked, "Sometimes I'll even sleep on the snow on the ground and let the snow cover me like a blanket."

Jamie laughed aloud this time at that announcement, "Well, I guess you can since the temperature doesn't bother you."

Outside the room, Baby Tooth was beaming as the conversation took on a playful tone, until Jack decided to wrap it up.

"I should probably go and check up on the other Guardians. I need to make sure that Pitch didn't give them nightmares too." Jack said, gazing out the window at the night sky.

"Ok." Jamie was silent for a moment, before asking hesitantly, "Are you going to be all right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry about it. I'll come by again soon." Jack hated lying to Jamie, but he didn't want Jamie to be concerned for him. Jack knew he'd be just fine as soon as he shook off any remaining bad feelings from the nightmare Pitch had caused.

With a friendly good-bye, Jack jumped out of Jamie's window and took to the wind once more, soon finding Baby Tooth flitting alongside him with a few disgruntled peeps. Jack sighed, "I know, I know I shouldn't have lied. I just don't need to make everyone worry over a nightmare I had." The little chirp he received wasn't entirely convinced, but apparently Baby Tooth decided to not press the point, as she landed on Jack's shoulder and snuggled up in the corner of his hood once more.

X-x-x

Jack knew that he had resolved to check on all the Guardians, but after seeing golden sand giving children dreams, the peeping of fairies gathering teeth, and the activity in the Warren and at the North Pole, Jack believed his worries were overblown. He could tell from a distance that it appeared as if the Guardians did not experience a similar nightmare as he had, otherwise North would have called them all together to discuss what to do about that new development. After several sleepless nights and attacking shadows that he thought to be Pitch, Jack decided to confide in the Guardians with what had happened to him. The other Guardians would perhaps be able to ease the terrible vision he had been forced to see a few nights before.

Jack had been heading to the Tooth Palace with this in mind, when he caught sight of golden sand reaching out from overhead. Jack instantly changed his direction midair, and the wind obeyed his silent command to send him up higher to where the Sandman was waving his hands and sending out more tendrils of the golden sand.

The Sandman noticed the winter spirit's approach, and his face brightened as he gave a little wave and extended the platform of sand he was on to allow for Jack to land on it. Sandy sent a small question mark made of the golden sand overhead when he noticed that Jack was incredibly relieved to see him. His concern grew as, without preamble, Jack moved forward and gave him a quick hug. Sandy blinked, and patted Jack lightly on the shoulder. This wasn't normal behavior. Something had happened.

Jack let go of the little man and sunk to the sandy ground beneath him with an exhale of breath, staff resting across his lap.

Sandy waited until Jack looked up at him before sending a flurry of images over his head. The images basically translated that the silent Guardian wanted to know what happened, and whether Pitch was to blame for his troubles.

Jack startled himself by laughing a little when he realized he got the Sandman's message clearly, "It was Pitch all right. I don't know how he managed to get so close to me without me realizing it. He gave me this…horrible nightmare. I didn't think he would ever do something like that."

The silent Guardian frowned, and then sent up a few more pictures over his head, asking what Pitch had made him see in the nightmare.

Jack shook his head, "I don't want to think about it. It was so vivid and real. I couldn't do anything to make it stop."

Sandy was distressed to see Jack upset, and he quickly sent a few more rapid fire images over his head.

Jack followed the pictures being shown, and his eyes looked down at the golden sand beneath him. Sandy still was persisting to know what had happened. Jack wondered if Pitch had expected him to remain mute about what he had experienced, and let him wallow in the horrors of the nightmare alone. After all, Pitch knew that Jack had never told the whole story of what had happened in his darkened lair all of those years ago.

Jack's eyes hardened and he gave himself a little inward shake. No, he wasn't going to do that. As much as it pained him to make his friends worry, Jack felt he needed to tell them what Pitch had forced him to see. Jack took a little breath, before he raised his eyes to find Sandy watching him with a patient expression.

Jack looked off to the side to the side as he spoke, "In the nightmare…Pitch used some kind of spell on me and made me help him…get rid of…the rest of the Guardians...it was horrible. I couldn't stop myself, and I couldn't wake myself up until Pitch decided to end the nightmare." The Sandman was alarmed by this, and Jack chanced a quick look, and what he saw made him unsure whether to laugh or cry. There was a righteously indignant expression on his friend's face, as sand steam he sent forth from his ear flared to life to show how he did not like the sound of what Jack was describing to him. Not at all. Jack dropped his gaze once more to the staff on his lap, until he felt a light touch on his shoulder.

Sandy was floating next to Jack now, and the little man sent up a few more images, to ask if Jack had slept at all.

"After that nightmare? I haven't slept for days since that happened to me." Jack said, and as the words left his mouth, he was struck by just how exhausted he really was.

The Sandman appeared to be thinking, before he gestured around the dream sand the two of them were on, and sent up one more flurry of images.

"You want me to try and sleep now? What if Pitch tries sneaking in another nightmare?" The unamused look sent his way made Jack chuckle. "Okay, you win. I doubt Pitch wants to be thrown and tossed about anytime soon anyway." Jack lay down on the golden sand, a bit more at ease from being able to talk about what was troubling him, even if his companion had only communicated though the sand pictures.

Baby Tooth snuggled up next to Jack's chin, a small source of warmth as she cheeped reassuringly to the pale teen as he allowed himself to close his eyes.

Sandy sent a stream of golden dream sand to settle over Jack, but he still looked worried, as if not sure that he could dispel all of what Jack had seen in his nightmare.

As the sand drifted over him, Jack felt that he had nothing to worry about with Sandy keeping watch over him while he slept.

Jack felt hope rise within him as the sand worked its magic. As Jack drifted off, he clung to the hopeful feeling, as unease began to set in. Jack was uncertain if he was going to experience a dreamless sleep or if there was another nightmare waiting to ensnare him.

X-x-x

Way lighter chapter this time around. Remember that there are still eight more main chapters to go, along with an epilogue.

It's likely to be around two weeks before I update again, as I have a job starting tomorrow and will be busy next weekend. So updates aren't going to be as quick as these three chapters.


	4. Ch 3: Believe

Disclaimer: See first chapter (going to stop putting these up starting on the next chapter. Obviously I will still own nothing).

X-x-x

At first, Jack thought he was going to have a pleasant dream, where there was nothing to worry about, or to just not dream at all. Either one of those options would have been welcome, but that was not the case when Jack realized where he was. No matter how hard Sandy had tried to help him that night, Jack found that he had fallen right back into a nightmare. That would not have been so bad, except that it appeared to be a continuation of the terrible nightmare Pitch had first given him. Jack supposed that Pitch could twist the dream Sandy had given him around to make it do as he pleased and make the winter spirit see whatever he wanted him to. In this case, it was to torment Jack with what had happened in the first vivid nightmare.

It was morning in the Warren now, and Jack supposed that it made sense that Pitch would make the nightmare pick up right where it had ended. To remind Jack what he had done when the Nightmare King had put him under his control.

It took Jack a moment to realize what was lying before him on the grassy ground. The nightmare came flooding back to Jack, and the winter spirit's eyes welled up with tears as he saw the shattered icy remains that had been Bunnymund. Jack dug his fingers deep into his white hair. Why would this horrible nightmare be revisited? He thought that by waking up, he wouldn't have to face this again. This horrible alternate reality of something that Pitch could have done. Jack dropped his hands and looked away from the shards. As terrible as this was, as long as Sandy hadn't been hurt, Pitch could give him as many bad dreams as he felt like.

Jack needed to leave, before the ice melted and he was forced to see even more than he already could. Jack thought himself a coward for not giving a proper burial for his friend, but he hoped his dream self could be forgiven, because this nightmare had his nerves thoroughly shot. The pale teen really didn't like how Pitch had extended this, and Jack knew he couldn't go to any of the other Guardians' homes because he couldn't find it in himself to go look at their fallen forms. The illusion Pitch had made was just too realistic for him to take without having a nervous breakdown.

Jack rose to his feet and headed out of the Warren as quickly as he could. He wanted to go and and check on Jamie. Jack thought that Pitch may try to torture him more in this nightmare, and the only way Jack could think that Pitch could accomplish that would be to go and scare some children. Jack moved a little more quickly. Now that the Guardians were gone, Pitch could get to the children quite easily, and Jack had the uneasy feeling he'd go after Jamie and his friends first.

Outside of the Warren, Jack took to the wind and flew through the early morning sky to Jamie's house. As he sped through the air, the pale teen resolved to warn Jamie, and let the boy know to keep an eye out for the Pitch. Even though this was an illusion the winter spirit was being shown, Jack didn't want to think how horrible it would be if something were to happen to Jamie. Any loss, either through losing belief in him, or, Jack cringed to even think about it, Jamie to be harmed in any way, that loss would carry over into his waking hours, and haunt the pale teen along with what had already been done to the Guardians.

Jack reached Burgess and began flying over the town, checking to see if Jamie was out playing. Jack flew past the lake and looked around for signs of children playing in the last remains of the snow, and found nothing. Jack found that odd, as most of the children would have gone out to play on the weekend. Though maybe days weren't tracked in a dream. After one more sweep over the area and finding no children, Jack twisted midair and shot along the sky. His concern for Jamie grew as he headed for the boy's house, and hoped nothing was wrong. Jack arrived at Jamie's house shorty, and peeked in from outside of Jamie's window, shocked to find Jamie on his bed. The young boy looked incredibly gloomy.

Jack quietly pushed the bedroom window open, and called out softly, "Jamie? You okay?" Jack's concern intensified, when he saw that Jamie had barely glanced in the direction of the open window where he was crouched. Jack stepped lightly into the room, and tried to speak to Jamie again. Maybe he just hadn't been loud enough, "Jamie?"

No response.

Jack felt a stab of dread. No, no, no, no. Jamie could see him. He really could. He wouldn't stop believing just because Jack hadn't been around. Jack moved closer, a familiar feeling of loneliness starting to take root in his mind, as he spoke even more loudly this time, "Jamie! You can hear me, can't you?" Jack's expression became hesitant as he moved even closet, until the winter spirit stood in front of the bed in Jamie's view, "You can…see me, right?"

Still no response.

Jack tried to stifle the feeling of fear from the fact that Jamie couldn't see him, and wondered if this had been Pitch's doing. If the Nightmare King was trying to make this nightmare worse, Pitch could have been trying to make use of Jack's fear of being invisible to everyone and the loneliness it brought forth. Jack swallowed back a small sob of distress threatening to surface. No, he wasn't going to let Pitch do this to him. He wouldn't. Even if this was just a bad dream, Jack wasn't going to have Jamie not be able to see him. He wouldn't allow that. It was just too much to handle in his mind if he couldn't even be seen in his dreams.

Feeling a little trepidation, Jack decided to send some snow bursting into existence over Jamie's head, hoping the sight of snow in his room again would make Jamie remember him. Jack let out a low sigh of relief when the snow brought forth a gasp of recognition. Jack took a step back in surprise as Jamie scrambled upright on his bed to stare it him in incredulous disbelief.

"Jack!"

Jack grunted as Jamie suddenly leapt from the bed at him and collided with him heavily, clinging tightly, as if making sure he was really there. Jack was standing stock still, even as his arms grasped Jamie to prevent him from falling. For a second, the pale teen had almost expected Jamie to go right through him. It was then Jack noticed that Jamie was sniffling, like he was upset about something. Jack drew back a little and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Jamie looked up at Jack, before avoiding the other's icy blue gaze, "I…almost believed what Pitch told me. He came here, Jack, early this morning. He woke me up and said that the Guardians were gone." Jamie shook his head, letting go of Jack and looking ashamed of himself now, "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have believed Pitch, even for a second."

Jack blinked in confusion, "I thought you couldn't see him anymore. That he was invisible to you." Jack mentally kicked himself. This was a nightmare. Why wouldn't Pitch be able make himself be seen by the children? It was his nightmare, after all. He was likely to have a lot of influence over it. It was a terrifying concept, and Jack sincerely hoped Pitch wouldn't put him under the spell again and make him hurt Jamie too. Jamie's hushed voice drew Jack's attention away from the troubling thought.

"I didn't think I could see him anymore either, but I got this weird feeling. Like something was wrong, and then I saw him here, in my room." Jamie looked hesitantly at the shadows in his room, like Pitch was there lurking in the gloom, before Jamie looked to Jack for reassurance.

Jamie looked so miserable that Jack hugged him again, to try and comfort him, as well as himself when he broke the news to the boy, "Pitch finds it…fun…to twist his words around when he talks to someone. To make them become fearful more easily." Jack drew away from Jamie for a second time, not being able to even look at his friend as he added, "But this time around he was telling the truth. With the exception of me, the rest of the Guardians are gone. I'm the last one."

Jamie looked completely shocked by this, and could barely form the words to his question. He tried a couple of times, but only shook his head. Finally, he manages to piece together a few sentences, and they were laced with disbelief, "But why…why would Pitch do that to the rest of the Guardians? How could he even have had enough power to hurt anyone? I thought you guys couldn't…you know…"

Jack decided he would skip over the fact that in this nightmare he had been forced to help Pitch do away with the Guardians and that was why it hadn't been as hard as it should have been. Jack would never have told Jamie that he had witnessed it himself first hand, because he didn't want to go into detail with Jamie about what had occurred, whether he was in the illusion he was in or even when awake.

Jack ended up lying, again. He hated that this hadn't changed from when he had been awake, where he had avoided telling Jamie the truth about why he had been upset. "Pitch…he wants to draw the world into an unending cycle of fear." At least, that's what Jack assumed anyway. It seemed like that would be something Pitch would try to do with the Guardians out of his way. Jack made eye contact with Jamie, to make sure he had his attention, "I don't know if the Guardians are capable of coming back, or if more Guardians will be chosen, but I'll try and keep Pitch at bay in the meantime." Jack reached out and put a hand on Jamie's shoulder, "All I need for you to do is believe in me, and help your friends do the same thing. I don't want a world that is full of fear and darkness, and I don't think that's what you want either. We don't want Pitch to win, right?

Jamie was silent, before he nodded, "Right. I can do that. I don't want everyone in the world to end up like my friends did when their belief had gone that Easter. It wasn't a nice feeling."

Jack managed to give Jamie a reassuring smile, "Thanks, Jamie. I need to go for now, but I can count on your help, right?" Seeing Jamie's enthusiastic nod, Jack left the boy's house, and felt slightly better. Things weren't so bad now. Jack doubted that Pitch could do any worse than how this nightmare had begun anyway.

As Jack soared through the air, he thought he spied Pitch watching him from the shadows, but decided that it was his eyes playing tricks on him. When he had chanced a glance back, Jack hadn't seen anything. No condescending voice making a quip at him, not the golden gaze trying to decide how best to attack. Jack's nerves were still shot, even though he was asleep. That seemed like it should be the other way around, but with this being a dream of Pitch's doing, Jack didn't think it would behave in the way a dream normally would.

Jack landed at the lake in the forest in Burgess, and tried to pass the time before he woke up. As he waited, Jack jabbed his staff at the trees around him, watching ice form in dazzling spirals, and frowned a little. It was a little too calm and it seemed odd that nothing had happened since he had spoken to Jamie. It almost seemed as if Pitch had lost his grip on this nightmare, and Jack thought that meant that perhaps Sandy had been fighting and had managed to drive Pitch off for the time being. It would be a hopeful thing to believe that Sandy would be able to wake him up soon.

With that in mind, Jack did a little hop skip up to a tree, and settled down on a branch beneath a heavy bough of even more branches, hiding him from view. In case Pitch came snooping about for him, Jack didn't want to be spotted too easily. Jack started to nod off, mind drifting to the dead Guardians in this horrible illusion of his home, and how he had assisted in bringing about their downfall. Jack clutched his staff close. Maybe Pitch believed that he would dwell on those negative emotions. That could be one of the reasons his enemy had chosen to continue the nightmare instead of starting a completely new one. Jack turned slightly where he was seated, getting more comfortable on the branch he had chosen.

He wasn't about to give in easily to Pitch, as he didn't like it when the other tried to take advantage of his long period of loneliness when he couldn't bee seen by children. When Jack woke up, he was going to do the next best thing to freezing Pitch in a solid cube of ice. He was going to completely ignore the Nightmare King, and he knew that would press the other's buttons, but Jack didn't particularly care. The winter spirit would fight back in his own way for this unwanted nightmare.

X-x-x

What's this? An update already? Yep. The job I have doesn't take up my whole day, so I have time in the evenings to type and edit the chapters. The next chapter should be up soon as well. Either within an hour today, or if it needs more work, Sunday evening at some point. The previous chapter, this one, and the next will be the lightest of the story, but get ready for stuff to pick up starting after that.

I guess I can't really tell when I'm in the mood to type, but I know this will be the most quickly updated story I've ever done. It's just flowing off the keyboard. Thanks for the follows/favs/reviews/PM's! I get happy when I see those, but I'm sure that most ffn authors feel that way too.


	5. Ch 4: Tooth Palace

X-x-x

Jack woke with a start, and glanced around his surroundings, blinking. He was in the forest by the lake in Burgess, like he had just been in the nightmare, but found himself in a different tree, and that let him know that he was, in fact, awake. Jack's thoughts caught up with him, and he got to his feet, balancing on the tree limb as he got ready to look for Sandy. If he was awake that meant that Sandy should be nearby, and perhaps still fighting with Pitch. Before Jack could even take to the air, he spotted the silent Guardian as he floated into view. Jack let out a low exhalation and sat back on his haunches, tapping his staff against the tree, relieved. Good, Sandy was all right.

The Sandman shot up several sand images over to his head when he got to Jack. The images explained to the winter spirit that Pitch had attacked soon after he had gotten Jack to sleep, and a few Nightmares had joined in. The attack had separated Sandy from Jack, giving Pitch time to twist the dream Sandy had been trying to give Jack.

Jack could tell that the other Guardian was upset about what had occurred, and Jack was so relieved that nothing bad had happened that he didn't mind, "It's all right, Sandy. Pitch wasn't able to make the nightmare any worse than it had already been." Jack cast a quick look around the area, before turning to the Sandman, "What happened to Pitch anyway?"

Sandy formed one of his sand whips and offered a small smile.

No other words, or sand images, in Sandy's case, were needed for Jack to get his meaning. Jack broke into a small grin, "I hope you got him good." Jack looked around again, this time a little nervous, "Where's Baby Tooth?"

Before Sandy could respond, a little chirp sounded, and Baby Tooth flew over to where Jack was from where she had been perched on a nearby tree branch. She fluttered close before Jack's face, and made a little cheep that seemed to be a question.

"I'm good, Baby Tooth." Jack flashed a small, genuine smile at her, causing a little swoon in the tiny fairy from the way it lit Jack's features up. Jack reached out, smiling when she landed on his hand, and was careful not to frost up any of her feathers as he added, "Sandy was able to get Pitch away quickly enough that he didn't have much of a chance to make me experience anything as bad as before." Jack used his free hand to scuff the ground below the branch with his staff, "Do you think I should go pay Tooth a visit?" This sudden question was directed to both Sandy and Baby Tooth.

Sandy gave a nod, a few images bursting over his head in rapid succession indicating that he thought it was a good idea. Baby Tooth made a peeping note of agreement, and settled in the crook of Jack's hood, puffing her feathers out and down as she made herself comfortable.

Jack laughed at this, before he sobered and looked at Sandy with a slightly serious look, "Do you think I should tell Tooth about my nightmare?"

Sandy shook his head.

"Just a visit, then?" Jack queried. He supposed it wouldn't do to get everyone worried over something that he could deal with. Seeing the nod, Jack smiled a little, "Ok. I guess I don't want to dwell on it anyway. The sooner it's out of my mind, the better. Visiting Tooth seems like a much better idea anyway." Jack took to the air, twisting around to look at the Sandman, "Thanks, Sandy. I'll see you around, okay?"

The Silent Guardian nodded and waved good-bye in response, and he watched Jack speed away on the wind. Jack didn't see the worried look on Sandy's face, though if he had, the winter spirit would have thought that Sandy was worried about Pitch cornering him again and taking his time with the nightmare.

X-x-x

Jack arrived at the Tooth Palace in a short amount of time, thanks to his exhilarating flight. Jack didn't see Tooth in the main area of her home, so he turned to Baby Tooth, who was still seated comfortably on his hood, "Do you think she went out?" It was later in the morning, so he supposed that Tooth could have gone somewhere where it was still nighttime in the world. After all, she appeared to be enjoy taking little breaks and going into the 'field' herself to collect teeth and see the children.

Baby Tooth's wings fluttered a little as she thought, before she shook her head, and flew away from Jack, waving a tiny hand in a motion for Jack to follow her.

Jack followed Baby Tooth as she spiraled downward, and he soon spotted Tooth, who was near the mural beneath the towering structures of her home. Jack's bare feet froze the water as he landed and he noted that Tooth's feathers were flaring in what seemed like worried agitation. Jack walked over to where she was hovering, the water freezing behind the pale teen as he walked. Baby Tooth was fluttering next to Tooth, her own tiny feathers flaring in response to her leader's mood. Jack's idea of a carefree chat vanished as he spoke up to catch Toothiana's attention, "Tooth, what's wrong?"

"Oh, Jack." Tooth said, spotting Jack finally, drawn from whatever she had been thinking about. Her eyes were worried when she spoke, "I'm losing some believers. Not a large number, just a few, and I can't figure out why. My fairies can't even find any teeth to bring back from those homes."

Jack had a small frown on his face as he leaned against his staff, "You don't think Pitch is up to anything again, do you?"

"I can't be sure of that, but I don't believe it's got anything to do with him. This time, anyway. The children who don't believe in me now still believe in the rest of the Guardians." Tooth shook her head, glancing at the mural, "It's very confusing to me, but I'm so busy keeping track of everything here lately that I don't have the time to investigate any reasons as to why it is happening."

Jack jumped at the chance to further distance himself from the still fresh nightmare, "I can go take a look and see if I can find anything out. I could even go tonight, and take Baby Tooth with me. I could let you know if I find anything." In truth, Jack wanted to avoid falling asleep any time soon, and helping a friend was the perfect distraction to keep him alert. Jack flashed a bright smile at Tooth, "I don't have any plans for the evening, so it'd be fun to have something to do"

Tooth's mood brightened considerably, as she ran a hand over her head feathers in a self-conscious gesture in response to Jack's smile, her own smile a little shy as she responded, "You'd do that for me? Thank you, Jack. I'll let Baby Tooth know where the houses are later." She paused, then asked, "Are you going to stay here until later tonight?" At Jack's nod, Tooth smiled again, before she turned and flew up to one of the structures of the Tooth Palace where the fairies were putting teeth in the containers.

Jack followed along after her, feeling much more at ease, as he settled on one of the structures, out of the way so he didn't disrupt anything. Jack smiled occasionally as he watched the mini fairies fly back and forth under Tooth's direction as she started calling out to them again. As night approached, Jack noticed that Tooth had drawn Baby Tooth aside and started to speak to her. When she was finished speaking, Baby Tooth zipped through the air back over to Jack, chirping excitedly, ready to go. Jack laughed as she landed on his shoulder and pointed, "Ok, I guess we're going right away." Jack waved his staff at Tooth in good-bye, and she waved a hand in response. Jack took to the air, and followed after Baby Tooth, who had launched herself off his shoulder to lead the way to the first house.

X-x-x

Seven houses down and one to go.

Jack shook his head in bewilderment. "You sure those were the right houses?" Jack asked Baby Tooth, who had taken a short break on his hood. Seeing the look thrown his way, Jack's lip quirked, and he said, "Just checking." Jack slowed in the air and came to a halt on a roof of a house. Quietly, Jack opened up the window and slipped inside, making his way over to the bed. Carefully, Jack titled the pillow like he had at the past seven houses to let Baby Tooth have an easier time to check for a tooth. She emerged from beneath the pillow after a short search, and shook her head, looking unhappy. Jack was about to leave, when a thought occurred to him. It was odd, but he wanted to check to see if there was any validity to the idea that had come to mind. Jack, careful not to jostle the sleeping child awake, felt around the bottom of the pillow, before reaching inside the pillowcase, drawing forth a tooth.

Baby Tooth gives a little trill, coming forward and picking the tooth out of Jack's hand and holding it with both of her hands. She tilted it this way and that, as if she were checking to make sure it was real.

Jack exchanged glances with the tiny fairy, "Why would the children hide the teeth like that?" Baby Tooth shrugged, clutching the tooth close to her chest, like it might vanish if she didn't. Jack smiled a little at the sight, before he looked at the sleeping child, "Do you think they were testing their belief in the Tooth Fairy or something, by hiding the tooth? Too see if it could be found in a different location?" Baby Tooth shrugged, but Jack continued, oblivious to her motion, "If Tooth or the rest of the fairies couldn't find the tooth, does that mean they think their belief was misplaced?"

Baby Tooth looked unhappy at the idea, and she chirped a soft note as she shot out the window.

Jack followed her out of the bedroom and into the dark night sky. Jack glanced over at the tiny fairy hovering alongside him with the tooth, "Come on, Baby Tooth. Let's go back and tell Tooth so she knows what's going on."

X-x-x

Back at the Tooth Palace, Jack had just finished telling Toothiana what he and Baby Tooth had found.

Tooth had a little frown across her lips, "It's strange that several children living so far apart would do something so similar at the same time. All of them believed all the rest of the times my fairies collected their teeth under their pillows."

Jack was quiet as he watched Tooth send some of her fairies to collect the teeth now that she knew that the teeth were there, but just hidden. Jack shifted a little, twirling his staff slightly, "Do you think Pitch had something to do with this after all?"

Tooth shook her head, "No, I don't think so, and as long as he doesn't start taking teeth or my fairies again, it would probably be best to just ignore him."

"I suppose so. Starting a fight if we don't know what is going on is probably not the best idea." Jack yawned as he strove to keep his eyes open. It had been a long day, and while a relaxing one overall, he was still tired for one reason or another. But since Sandy wasn't around, Jack was a little hesitant to catch a nap.

Tooth noticed Jack's weariness, "You can rest here if you'd like, Jack. As long as you don't mind the constant sound of wings."

Jack smiled at Tooth, grateful to accept, "Yeah, that sounds good Tooth. The sound doesn't bother me at all." Jack took to the wind for a short moment, where he settled onto one of the middle structures of the Tooth Palace, feeling perfectly safe and content with Tooth and all of her workers around him. Jack thought that he shouldn't have to rely on Sandy to get a good night's sleep after all. Pitch would be foolish indeed if he tried to reach the winter spirit here.

Tooth paused in calling to her fairies to cast a look in Jack's direction, and her eyes dimmed a little in sadness. She hadn't asked for details, but she could tell that something was bothering Jack. She had a fairly good idea that Pitch had something to do with it. Tooth turned away to start calling to the fairies again, and could only hope that Jack would be all right, and that he would be careful if he did run into Pitch.

Jack, meanwhile, couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, and they slipped close. The winter spirit was looking forward to a dreamless sleep, and a swift return to consciousness, as he was more used to waking up quickly when he chose to take short naps.

X-x-x

...You guys are lucky that I'm so stoked to be going to Anime Detour today that you get two chapters in one day.

And I am going to go back and fine tune the whole story once all of it has been posted. Though the past two chapters and this one were intentionally supposed to be less detailed.

I will work on the next chapter. It'll take some time to make it story form, as it is currently in bullet points. All I'll say is that if I had to choose a word to describe the chapter, I would say avalanche. Yes, avalanche. Have fun (?) trying to figure out what that means.


	6. Ch 5: Avalanche

X-x-x

Jack opened his eyes, not at all surprised to find himself back in the nightmare. He supposed it was too much to hope for that Pitch would have left him alone. Jack sat up in the tree he was resting on, and glanced around. It was early morning from the look of the sky. Jack let out a low sigh, lying back down and draping an arm across his eyes as he tried to gather his thoughts. It was a difficult thing to do. The pale teen's thoughts kept drifting back to whether or not Tooth and all her fairies were all right.

Jack gave a light shake of his head and dropped his arm to his side as he slipped off of the tree branch lightly, staff resting over a shoulder. He didn't think that even Pitch would have wanted to deal with fairies swarming all over him or to face Tooth when she was serious. Jack thumped the staff against the ground as he remembered a small detail. He had fallen asleep in an area of the Tooth Palace that had an abundance of shadows. Jack nearly groaned. How could he have made such a silly mistake like that? It would have been a simple task for Pitch to whisk him off through the shadows, and Tooth and her fairies wouldn't have been able to react until it was too late.

Jack looked around his immediate surroundings, and debated whether or not he should just stay in the forest. If he stayed, Pitch would have to come to him if he wanted to bother him in this nightmare. At the moment, Jack didn't feel like making things easy for the Nightmare King, as the winter spirit really didn't appreciate the intrusion upon his dreams. Jack had so few as it was that he'd rather they not be nightmares. Decision made, Jack let the time slip by, to see if he would wake up on his own, or if Pitch would get bored of waiting and come to seek him out.

When it got to be around eight-thirty in the morning, Jack still found himself in the nightmare, and he was rather disappointed by this fact. So, he wasn't going to wake up until Pitch tormented him more, or until one of the Guardians drove Pitch away from wherever Pitch was giving him this nightmare. Jack had an unnerving thought that perhaps Pitch had brought him off to the underground lair, where none of the Guardians could reach him very easily. Jack let out another sigh as he drove the unwanted thought from his mind for the time being. He would get through this. Jack had to be strong, and he resolved then and there to not let Pitch scare him anymore with this nightmare.

Jack twirled his staff for a moment as he decided what to do, before he took to the wind. Jack decided that it wouldn't hurt to pay Jamie a visit. After all, it had cheered him up in this dream when he had had it the last time, despite the rough start of Jamie not seeing him right away. If Pitch showed up at all, Jack would just draw the Nightmare King away from Jamie and deal with the gray skinned man, away from the boy. There wasn't any way Jack was going to get Jamie involved in a fight between him and Pitch. Maybe if Jack could beat Pitch in this nightmare, he'd lose control over it and Jack would get back to his sleepless or dreamless nights.

Jack put the idea to the back of his mind as he reached Jamie's house, and peeked into the bedroom through the window. No one was there. Jamie was gone. Nervous, Jack jumped down and headed around the house, where he paused for a moment in front of a window, as he overheard Jamie's mother speaking to someone over the phone as she tried to stop Sophie from falling over.

"Oh, yes, Jamie and a few of his friends are going to go skiing in the mountains today. Yes, I know that the winter is almost over. That's why Pippa's parents offered to take them. They left early this morning for the airport to go to Colorado."

Jack blinked. Skiing? Colorado? This late in the winter season? In some mountains? Jack had an uneasy feeling about the trip, and jumped up to the roof of the house, looking up at the sky, "Hey, wind! Take me to Colorado!" Jack felt a rush of adrenaline as the wind answered his call.

As Jack flew, he discovered that the farther he got away from Burgess, that there were fewer children that could see him. Pitch had been busy while the pale teen had been awake and helping Tooth. The children were losing their belief, and Jack disliked this, even though he knew this to just be a nightmare of Pitch's making.

Jack arrived in Colorado in a short amount of time, and began to search for Jamie. It took a good hour or two of searching the mountainous areas, before Jack finally spotted a van making its way up the side of a mountain on a bumpy path. Jack flew up alongside it and looked inside. Jack found that the van had Jamie and his friends in it. They were all chattering excitedly to one another, and hadn't even glanced out the window to see Jack soaring alongside them, one hand tucked into a pocket as he observed them with a small smile. Jack knew as he followed along after the van that his idea of confronting Pitch would have to be delayed. Jack wanted to keep a close watch on Jamie. He didn't want anything to happen to him.

Jack followed along after the van at a leisurely pace through the sky, keeping an eye out for any sign of Pitch. As he soared along, Jack allowed the slightest amount of tension to leave him. Everything was fine for now. He didn't sense that anything was wrong (other than the fact that he was in a dream) and the pale teen was relieved when the van reached its destination with no trouble.

Jack landed smoothly on top of one of the cabins, and settled on the roof, his staff held loosely in one hand as he watched the children pile out of the van. The next several hours were entertaining, as Jack watched several failed attempts of the children to ski down shorter hills of snow. After watching several painful looking falls, Jack sneakily helped the children by placing well timed ice or snow bursts to catch them when they toppled over, and sent them flying along the ground smoothly, much to the children's confusion and delight.

X-x-x

The small group of youths were left to their own devices when the adults went inside the cabin for a break, as they wanted to let the children burn off any excess energy. As Jack approached them, he realized that only Jamie had spotted him, as the boy was the only one that waved a hand at him in greeting.

"Who're you waving at?" Caleb questioned, shoving his brother to one side to avoid having snow pushed down the back of his coat. Claude didn't seem too put out as he reached for more snow to try again.

"Jack Frost." Jamie stated simply as he pointed up, to where Jack had just sent snow up in the air above the other children to fall lightly down on them.

There was a collective gasp as all of the children remembered who Jack was and greeted the cheerfully smiling Jack Frost with waves and hellos.

"Jack! Where were you?"

"What are you doing here in Colorado?"

"Are you going to start a snowball fight with us today?"

Jack smirked at all of the questions the children were bombarding him with, "Hey, hey, slow down you guys. That's a lot of questions." When they quieted somewhat, he spoke again, "I heard that you guys came here so I came to check up on you guys, to make sure that Pitch wasn't bothering you."

"What, that creepy guy from two years ago during Easter?" Monty asked, pushing his glasses back into place.

"Yeah, him." Jack smirked at Pitch being called a 'creepy guy' and thought that the Nightmare King would find it terribly nonthreatening to be addressed as such. Or maybe he'd like it. Pitch could be weird like that.

Pippa glanced over at Jamie, "I thought he wasn't supposed to be a threat anymore."

Caleb side stepped another snowy handful of snow, shoving his brother to one side as he did, "Yeah, I thought you and the Guardians would deal with him if he showed his face again." Caleb let out a yelp of surprise as Claude successfully put snow down the back of his hood.

"Yeah, you guys can totally crush him, right?" Claude added, shoving Clyde aside as his brother came at him with a double handful of snow.

Jack and Jamie made eye contact, and Jack understood in an instant that Jamie hadn't told his friends that the Guardians were gone. Swallowing a lump in his throat, Jack reminded himself yet again that this was just a nightmare, and he wouldn't let fear overtake him, and certainly not in front of the children. Doing so would bring his mood down, and would make it more likely for him to fall into a trap from Pitch to draw fear out of him. Jack froze in place as a snowball smacked him in the face, and there was a collective gasp from the children.

"Ha! Got you! I thought for sure you would've dodged that!" Jamie seemed to have been thinking along the same lines as Jack, and had been the one to throw the snowball. The boy steered the conversation in another direction as he made another snowball with his gloved hands, "Are you getting old or were you letting me get in a free hit?"

Jack was in such a good mood from the children's cheerfulness that he decided now wasn't a bad time to start a snowball fight, and think about Pitch later. Jack nailed Claude and Caleb, getting Cupcake and Monty soon after. Pippa and Jamie managed to avoid being hit until they were overcome with laughter at the sight of their friends covered in snow and giggling. Jack sent a rapid fire assault of fluffy snowballs, causing the laughter to increase. Jack grinned good naturedly as he watched the children scramble to retaliate.

Jack moved slightly out of range as the children loaded up on snowy ammo and started hurling it at him. The winter spirit let out a lighthearted laugh as he easily avoided the barrage of snowballs being thrown at him. Jack threw another few snowballs, gleeful as several made their mark. The pale teen couldn't see how this could be a nightmare right now. It was like Pitch wasn't even trying. It was almost laughable, how the intensity of the nightmare had dropped. Maybe the Nightmare King was losing his touch.

x-x-x

Jack didn't notice the day go by as he had been having so much fun with the children. He stood near one of the cabins as he watched Jamie's friends get into the van. Jamie remained behind to get a few words in with Jack.

"We're going to go stay at a hotel tonight, but we're coming back to ski again tomorrow. Would you come by again?"

Jack saw the hopeful look in Jamie's eyes, and nodded in agreement, "Sure, I'll do that."

Jamie smiled brightly at him, before running off toward the van, calling over his shoulder, "We'll get you tomorrow Jack! You can't avoid our snowballs forever!"

"Try aiming, I hear that helps a lot!" Jack called back, chuckling a little at the indignant look that appeared on Jamie's face as the van door shut. Jack kept up the smile; though inwardly he hoped this would be the last nightmare he would be experiencing. The pale teen was already getting a little nervous that he hadn't woken up yet, and that Pitch hadn't shown up to stir up any trouble. It was getting dark, and if Pitch were going to do something, now would be the time to do it.

Jack took to the air to keep a better look out on his surroundings. Jack waited for the van to start, ready to follow along on the wind. The van started up, getting ready to leave the cabins. Jack took his eyes off the van, and cast a look at the mountains for any telltale signs of an avalanche being triggered. It was a thought that had occurred to the winter spirit earlier in the day, and he had been relieved that none of the skiing had caused anything like that to happen. Jack's hand closed around his staff more tightly. At the very least, he could have diverted one if it had occurred.

"Frost? Why are you so happy? I would have thought that the Guardians being dead would have been so emotionally devastating that you wouldn't be able to function properly for years."

The stinging remark came from below him, and Jack turned quickly, sending a burst of ice at the same time. Jack watched as Pitch faded into the shadows to avoid the ice, and the winter spirit chanced a glance over at the van, and found that the van had stalled. A little flash of fear went through the pale teen. No. Jamie and the others needed to leave, or he had to draw Pitch away from here.

"Something the matter with your tongue, Jack? Or did losing the Guardians take all the fun out of you after all?" There was a little snide laugh from the surrounding darkness, "Perhaps that nauseating display of cheerfulness earlier of playing in the snow with the children was your way of trying to put it out of your mind?"

The silky voice came from another direction, and before Jack could get a lock on it, black sand came snaking up and looped about one of his legs, dragging him out of the sky and tossing him through the air to land with a painful thud on the ground. Dazed, Jack shook his head in an attempt to clear it, rising to his feet as his hand closed around his staff to keep it from dropping out of his hands. Dimly Jack heard Jamie and the other children calling his name, while the adults were trying to figure out what was wrong with the van.

"You're not very together today, are you? You could have dodged that with your eyes shut otherwise. You're making this quite too easy for me."

Jack gasped as something struck him hard in the gut as he was struggling to regain his balance, and the momentum slammed him backward into a nearby pine. The pale teen's breath had been driven from him, and as he attempted to get it under control, Jack finally spotted Pitch where he stood in the shadows, a calculating expression trained on him. Jack pushed away from the tree, a bit wobbly on his feet as he used the staff to keep himself upright. When Jack felt he wasn't going to topple over, and his breath was under control, Jack lifted his staff and leveled it at Pitch, "If I'm not together, it's your fault. Trying to keep things straight in a nightmare is hard. Don't you think you could lie off for a few nights? Even I get worn out, even if it is just a dream."

"And being around children and frolicking in the snow doesn't wear you out equally as much?" Pitch wore a thin frown as he studied Jack, before he began to smirk, like he found Jack to be the most entertaining being he had ever met, "I am the Nightmare King. I am quite competent at stringing you along, you know. You do know how to have fun, unlike the other Guardians. They have absolutely no sense of fun." Pitch's smirk became a sneer, "Well, they had no sense of fun, I guess I should be saying."

Jack gripped his staff tightly as he considered the gray skinned man before him, while completely ignoring the insult, "So, if you're the one causing the nightmare, if I beat you in it, does that mean I won't have to come back to this again?" Jack gestured all around him. The winter spirit was aware that Pippa's parents were still fiddling with the van, so he continued to speak, to stall for time, "Is this the best you can come up with for a nightmare, Pitch? Killing the Guardians? Scaring the children? Can't you think of something more original?" Jack decided to leave out the fact that the start of the nightmare with the Guardians and the loss of control over his own body had been a terrifying thing to experience.

There was a slight pause before Pitch spoke again, words rolling off smoothly, "Why come up with something original when something I know to bother you will be sufficient?" Pitch titled his head as he continued to inspect Jack closely, as if testing out if he could sense any fear. The Nightmare King gave no sign whether he sensed something or not, as he melded back into the shadows after his lips twitched up into a mocking smile.

Jack cast a quick look around, his staff held at the ready for when Pitch would emerge out of the surrounding gloom. What the pale teen hadn't been expecting was for Pitch to suddenly pop into existence from his very own shadow right in front of him. Jack quickly stumbled backward as Pitch loomed closer, backing him up against a tree. Jack held his staff protectively against his chest as the other got a little too close for comfort.

Pitch leaned in close, his face scant inches from Jack's own as he whispered silkily, "Why, it wouldn't be a nightmare if it didn't cause you to be fearful, Frost. What better way than to take everything you care about away from you, right before your eyes?" Pitch laughed nastily and leaned out of range as Jack swung his staff at him.

"If I'm not scared what's the point of bringing me back into this nightmare?" Jack decided not to waste any more time. He needed to beat Pitch now, before anything happened that would haunt the winter spirit for the rest of his days when he woke. Jamie and his friends were still in danger the longer he lingered in the area.

"You're not afraid? You know, you shouldn't lie to me, Jack." Pitch batted aside some bursts of frost with the shadows, and sent a black sand arrow at Jack.

"Who's lying? I'm not afraid of you!" Jack snapped back, avoiding the sand arrow by ducking. Jack flinched as the arrow passed by a little closer than he thought, and watched as Pitch vanished again. Jack twitched a little as Pitch came out of a close by shadow to invade his breathing space again.

"But you are afraid, Jack. You can't hide that from me, no matter how hard you might try. And right now? You're afraid something might happen to Jamie, like what happened to the Guardians earlier in this…nightmare. You're afraid of losing him too." Pitch chuckled as Jack started to lose his cool, and his attacks became more erratic and less accurate. "Struck a nerve, did I?' Pitch asked innocently as the frost being hurled at him intensified in strength.

"Shut up!" Jack angled the staff, managing to brush Pitch's side, and a rather uncharacteristic look of savage pleasure crossed Jack's face when he saw that he had finally managed to strike Pitch and cause a little damage.

"My, my, that look isn't at all flattering on you, Frost." But Pitch decided he rather liked the look that had crossed the other's face. It wasn't as sinister as he himself could do, but it made Pitch wonder just how far he could push the other. Blocking a downward swing of Jack's staff with a quickly materialized sand scythe, Pitch drove Jack backward as he commented pleasantly, "You were such a nice, obedient little pawn earlier. Your fear was so very wonderful as you helped kill of the Guardians with me. Maybe I will use the spell again. It could be fun…for me."

"I'd rather die than let you use me like that again to hurt anyone." Jack gritted, straining under the weight of the scythe. He would have thought that Pitch wouldn't be as powerful, but again, this being a nightmare of Pitch's design…it made sense that the Nightmare King would be able to hold his own in a battle.

Pitch's smile became sinister, "Whenever did I say I would have you harm anyone? I had a much better idea in mind."

Jack didn't know what to say to that, but he didn't like where the conversation was going. He strained against the scythe, trying to decide the best way to dodge out of the way.

Pitch continued to speak smoothly, ignoring Jack's struggle in favor of trying to send the pale teen over the edge, "I think it would be better to have a world of cold and dark, with children always in the grip of fear."

"I'd never help you scare any of the children!" Jack, with a burst of energy, blasted Pitch away with a surge of ice from his staff as he realized just what Pitch was hinting at. The pale teen knew he shouldn't lose his temper, but he couldn't help it. His next several attacks flew wide of their mark, but Jack kept it up as he pursed Pitch around the cabin area, completely forgetting about the van and Jamie as he tried to land a hit on his taunting enemy.

Pitch evaded the attacks with graceful ease, and sent attacks flying back, "You wouldn't have any choice, just like you had no choice with what happened to the Guardians."

"They're not dead! You just made this nightmare to scare me out of my mind, and you did! Isn't that enough? Why do you need it to keep going like this?" Jack hated the fact that he had harmed the Guardians in this nightmare, but the idea of Pitch using that spell again, and then making him help Pitch scare children every time he ended up in this nightmare was just that. A nightmare; one Jack didn't want to live through, even if it was just an illusion.

Pitch slid a glance in the direction of the still stalling van, a thin smile crossing his lips, "Maybe I should have you take care of your little friends…"

Pitch didn't even get to finish his sentence as Jack lashed out blindly, unable to stand Pitch talking about harming his friends with such a maddening smile on his face, "Shut up, shut up!"

Pitch gave Jack an almost pitying look, as he raised a hand to toss aside the attack, and sidestepped out of the way of another.

Jack's eyes widened in alarm as his attack triggered a massive avalanche. The snow started to rush down the side of the mountain, gaining speed as it headed directly in the path of the van with Jamie and the other children inside. Jack let out a cry, his fear overtaking him as the snow raced down at a steadily increasing speed. The van finally started up, and it began to drive in an attempt to outpace the snow. Jack raced forward, ready to take to the wind to freeze the snow in place, when something collided with him heavily. Jack winced in utter surprise as Pitch pinned him against a nearby tree.

Jack thrashed in the others grasp as he tried to free himself, but Pitch suddenly had one hand wrapped around his throat, the other grasping the pale teen's wrist, pointing the staff away. Jack would have tried to freeze Pitch, but shadows appeared, wrapping around his limbs and effectively immobilizing him.

Pitch ignored the glare thrown his way, "What's wrong now? I didn't do anything. That avalanche is your doing, not mine."

"I know, and I can stop it! Let go of me!" Jack needed to get free so he could go and help Jamie. If he could just freeze trees or something over the van to allow the snow to go over it…Jack choked as Pitch's hand tightened around his throat, interrupting his train of thought. Unable to form words, Jack could only manage a frustrated snarl, twisting in vain to angle his staff at Pitch to strike him, but the Nightmare King's hand dug into his wrist to the point that it is almost painful, and the pale teen nearly lost his grip on the staff.

"Now, now, if I'm going to have you help me, I can't have you be resisting so much." Pitch drawled lazily, finding it quite amusing that Jack just wouldn't give up with trying to attack him, especially after the shadows tightened their own grasp, making it impossible for Jack to free himself.

"I'll never help you. Let go!" Jack gritted out as he struggled in Pitch and the shadows' grip.

"It's not really your choice, now is it?" Jack let out a choking gasp of pain as Pitch turned Jack's head to the side forcefully, so that the two of them could see the van and the ever approaching avalanche.

It was now too close to divert even if Jack gave it all he had. Jack and Jamie made eye contact, as the van had driven toward the trees in an attempt to cut through and get to higher ground. The van passed by. "Jamie!" Jack didn't care that Pitch was there, reveling in the fear coming from Jack and Jamie and all of the people in the van. Jack strained against Pitch's hands and the shadowy restraints. He had to do something. Anything. Jack watched in absolute horror as the van vanished beneath the onslaught of snow.

Pitch turned Jack's head away from the avalanche as it passed them by, and forced the pale teen's head back against the tree to look him in the eye. "I think I'll let you go, for now. This has been quiet entertaining for me." Pitch let go of Jack like he hadn't just been slowly choking him, and backed away toward the shadows, raising a hand in a mockery of saying good-bye.

Jack dropped to the snow as the shadowy restraints vanished abruptly, and he looked to where the van had disappeared beneath the snow. The avalanche had settled. There was no movement or clue that there had ever been a van. Jack looked back to where Pitch was standing in the shadows and watching him with glittering eyes. Jack couldn't find it in himself to continue the fight, as he was in shock that Pitch would do something like this to him. Harming the Guardians was one thing, but harming the children? That was low, even for him. Jack lifted his head to stare at Pitch.

Pitch noticed the look he received, and a brief toothy smile flashed across his face. "Now, why look at me like that? I didn't tell you to start an avalanche. You did that all on your own. You can't blame this one on me."

Jack couldn't stand the way Pitch was twisting the situation, trying to make him seem like the bad guy, "Why are you doing this? What's the point?"

Pitch's lips curled into a delighted smirk, like Jack had finally said something that intrigued him. "The point? Why does there have to be a point, Frost? You're so much fun to play with, and seeing you so fearful and unable to do anything to help anyone, well…why not take advantage of all of that delicious fear rolling off of you?"

"Then why do you keep showing me this nightmare? Why not fight me or something like you usually do?"

Pitch was silent for a moment, as if pondering an answer. Then, the Nightmare King gave Jack a dark smile as he backed away into the shadows, golden eyes locked onto icy blue ones, "Because it is drawing out such a lovely amount of fear from you than when we fight. Why not make such a thing last as long as possible?"

The Nightmare King was gone, and Jack was left alone on the mountainside. Jack's mind caught up with him, and he let out a strangled cry of "Jamie!" before he fell upon the snow and started to dig, not entirely sure where the van had vanished. Jack hadn't woken up yet, so he was going to try and help his friends. Failing to find anything after a few minutes of frantic digging, Jack turned and rushed to one of the cabins that had avoided any damage from the avalanche. Jack shouldered the door open, and cast a panicked glance over the place before locating the phone. He accidentally knocked it off of the table in his haste to get to it, but the pale teen ignored it, as he knew no one would hear him on the other end of the phone anyway. Jack dialed the emergency number he had seen people use in this part of the world, and leaned his head down to listen to the other end of the phone. He heard a bored voice on the other line pick up.

"Hello?"

Jack leapt up and started knocking things off the nearby table, and could hear the man on the other end of the phone start to take on a more interested tone.

"Hey, Mark, get over here. Where's this phone line from? Sounds like something's causing a damn ruckus over there!

Jack knocked a few more things over, than started to make the cabin door slam open and shut with short bursts of wind and frost. He hoped that it would cause the people on the other end of the line to send help. Jack listened to the other end of the phone closely, letting up on the assault on the door. It certainly sounded like he had caused some alarm, from the conversation being carried on the other end.

"The call's coming from one of the cabins up in the mountains. Did a group go up there to ski today?"

"Dammit, Mark, go send the cops up there. Don't speculate."

"But…"

"No 'buts' Mark, it sounds like some bear or something's trashing the place. Some hooligans having some fun even."

"Well, all right…"

Jack tuned out of the insults now flying between the two men on the other end of the line, and went back outside, sending a blast of frost over his shoulder that knocked a few more things to the ground near the phone. Jack dropped to the snowy ground once more and started to dig again, near the area of where he had seen the van vanish beneath the snow. Tears sprang to his eyes unbidden, and Jack clenched his hands into fists, hating this new kind of helplessness. Why had the Nightmare King dragged him further along in this nightmare? Hadn't Pitch already gotten what he wanted?

Jack closed his eyes, forehead resting against the cold ground. He needed to wake up. He had to wake up. He needed to make sure that Jamie was all right. Jack had to make this nightmare end. It had to end. Jack couldn't spend the rest of eternity being drawn into this terrible farce of reality. It was just too painful. His vision blurred from the tears, Jack cast a glance up at the moon shining overhead. The man in the moon still was silent, and Jack knew that he wouldn't hear anything anyway, as this was a dream. The man in the moon would have warned him or the other Guardians if Pitch were up to something, anyway. Either way, Jack did feel a little better, as it almost seemed as if he was trying to be comforted by the being up there. Jack looked away from the bright light in the sky, squeezing his eyes shut again.

Jack knew he just needed to wake up. He had to recover from this latest mental hit to his psyche. Jack let out a low sigh as he curled up on the snowy ground. Pitch really was too good at what he did. It was unfortunate for Jack, but at least now the winter spirit felt himself drifting off again. Jack welcomed the thought of waking up and escaping the horrible act Pitch had caused him to bring about.

X-x-x

Mwahaha…an evil, taunting Pitch is so much fun for me to write (I am hoping I'm keeping things as IC as possible still, but Jamie and the other children are harder to write). And I made the decision to post the chapter titles after all.

I don't know. I just chose Colorado because there are mountains. I may go and do some better research but…as this is a work of fiction, I thought I could boot logic aside occasionally. What was important was that Pitch was having Jack cause harm to his friends, and I figured it could basically happen anywhere. Ugh, and I think the beginning reads a little awkwardly, but gets better as the chapter goes on. That'll be something I'll go back to and take a look at once the whole story has been posted. I think I've hemmed and hawed at it enough for the time being (read: several hours).

Thanks for the favs/follows/reviews. From what I can see from those, there _are_ people who enjoy twisted angst/horror stories, so that's a bit of a relief. I will update with the next chapter as soon as I can. It's gonna be called 'Breather at the North Pole' or something along those lines.


	7. Ch 6: Breather at the North Pole

X-x-x

With a cry of horror, Jack found himself lying on his back in the dark. He held perfectly still as he allowed his eyes to adjust to the gloom. The pale teen tilted his head one way, then the other, assessing his surroundings. With a start, Jack realized that he was lying on the ground in Pitch's lair, in the cavern that held the globe. Panic rose within him as he expected to see the Nightmare King pop out of nowhere to continue where the nightmare had left off. A small blurred object collided with his head, and Jack let out a yelp, crab walking away from what had hit him, raising his hand to blast whatever had bumped into him.

Baby Tooth cheeped in indignation as a small puff of frost settled over her feathers, and she flew around in circles around Jack's head.

"Oh! Baby Tooth. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Jack stopped his apology abruptly as he realized with a jolt that he wasn't holding his staff. Jack went down on all fours, running his hands along the dark corners of the cavern, searching. His staff had to be there, Pitch wouldn't have taken that, would he? Jack heard Baby Tooth cheeping in one corner of the cavern, and he walked over to where she was, "What is it?"

Baby Tooth fluttered down to land on a familiar looking staff, and looked up at him with a little smile.

With an exhalation of breath, Jack gratefully picked up the staff. Then, he swept around the lair lightly on brief gusts of wind, to see if he could locate Pitch. Jack let his grip loosen on the staff ever so slightly after finding that Pitch wasn't there. Jack noticed Baby Tooth plop herself down onto his shoulder, and give him a concerned chirp, reaching up with a tiny hand to pat the curve of his jaw like she had done when he had first experienced the nightmare. Jack smiled, laughing a little nervously, "Sorry about frosting your feathers, Baby Tooth. Pitch just made that nightmare worse."

Baby Tooth tugged at Jack's hoodie, chirping several times. She seemed to be trying to tell him something.

"Oh! Is Tooth all right? Pitch didn't do anything to her, did he?" Jack shook his head with frustration, mainly at himself, "I can't believe that I fell asleep in the shadows of the Tooth Palace like that. It probably looked bad when Pitch came and dragged me off."

Baby Tooth nodded.

"Ok, let's get out of here first, though. Just being in here depresses me. No wonder Pitch is the way he is. I'd be unhappy too if I had to live here." Jack carefully picked his way out of the gloomy underground realm, freezing a few Nightmares that appeared from the shadows before him. Each time he saw the glowing eyes of the creatures, he had had an uneasy feeling that Pitch was watching him from somewhere nearby, out of view. But the winter spirit hadn't seen or even sensed Pitch, so he merely blasted the Nightmares, because he didn't want them to warn Pitch that he was on the move. Jack took his leave of the eerily silent lair, and emerged into the early morning sky. The daylight cheered him quite a bit, before the nightmare rushed back to him, and Jack let out a gasp.

"Jamie." Jack breathed, mentally kicking himself for forgetting such a thing. "We'll go see Tooth in a minute, Baby Tooth. I need to go check on Jamie…he was in the nightmare Pitch gave me this time." The tiny fairy peeped in understanding, this time clinging tightly to Jack's hoodie as the pale teen took to the wind, making a direct beeline for Jamie's home.

Jack was immensely relieved to find Jamie having fun with his friends in the park. There were no terrible avalanches completely burying them. Jack paused for a moment to watch the children chattering and playing, before he took the wind once more. Happy that his friend was all right, Jack went to the Tooth Palace, as he knew that Tooth and her fairies were likely wondering what had become of him after Pitch had whisked him away right under their noses.

X-x-x

Jack arrived at the Tooth Palace, where he was greeted by Toothiana, and a number of the fairies, all hovering around him, concerned.

"I'm sorry, Jack. Are you all right? We didn't know anything was wrong until Pitch came out of the shadows near you, and by then it was too late to do anything to stop him." Tooth apologized, and smiled a little at the sight of the tiny fairy seated on Jack's shoulder, "I see Baby Tooth found you."

Jack carefully ran a finger over Baby Tooth's head feathers, "Yeah, I woke up in Pitch's lair, and he had hidden my staff. I think he was trying to draw a little more fear from me because of that, but Baby Tooth helped me out."

Tooth flitted closer to Jack, one hand reaching out to touch Jack's shoulder lightly, "Pitch gave you another nightmare, didn't he?"

Jack hesitated, before he decided to give a brief explanation of what had happened, "It was still the same nightmare as before, but this time around, he didn't show himself right away. In it, I met up with Jamie and his friends in some mountains, and we had a good time, before Pitch showed up." Jack took a breath, to calm himself. A nightmare. He wasn't going to let a nightmare do this to him. When he had gotten himself under control, Jack continued, "Pitch showed up, and he taunted me. We fought, and he goaded me into starting an avalanche. He prevented me from stopping it, so I had to watch Jamie and his friends vanish beneath all of the snow. Then I woke up." Jack had told himself he wouldn't let this nightmare affect him anymore, but he couldn't help it as tears appeared in his eyes.

Tooth's eyes were full of concern as she closed the distance between them and wrapped Jack in a loose hug, "I'm sorry I let Pitch do that to you, Jack."

Jack shook his head, reaching up with one hand to run it over his eyes, "Nah, it isn't your fault. It's Pitch's. You weren't expecting him to have to guts to show up and kidnap me, of all things."

Tooth was silent for a moment, before she drew away from Jack, "I think I can take care of things here at the Tooth Palace. It seems like Pitch is more interested in you right now."

"Yeah, it seems so. I'll have to think of a way to get him to leave me alone." Jack said, tapping the staff against the ground as he leaned against it.

Tooth brightened, "I know, why don't you go and talk to North? He might have an idea of how to keep Pitch away from you for a while."

"It's worth a try. I really need to stop having those nightmares or I'm going to be too exhausted to do anything." Jack called up the wind, Baby Tooth clinging to his hoodie and letting out a strident chirp as they went zipping up into the air, "See you later, Tooth!"

Tooth watched Jack disappear into the distance, until he was lost from view. With a sad expression, Toothiana turned away.

X-x-x

Jack took Tooth's suggestion to go and visit North. Jack wanted to try to make sense of what he had been experiencing. The nightmares Pitch had been tormenting him with were very vivid and real, but Jack knew they were just that. Nightmares. Nothing to be overly concerned about, but with how exhausted he was already feeling they needed to end as soon as possible.

Jack arrived at the North Pole, reveling in the cold breeze buffeting him as he flew through the air. Jack landed in front of the mountainous castle that was North's home, and was met by Phil standing before the door.

Phil saw Jack land, and waved a spear like weapon at the winter spirit as he let out a series of growling barks, which sounded like a question.

Jack grinned at the display, bracing his staff over both shoulders as he spoke, "What, this again? I thought we were past all this after I became a Guardian." Jack gave a mischievous little smile as Phil thumped the weapon against the ground with a series of grumbles. "What, you liked chasing me off? Disappointed I can come and go here and cause a little trouble?" Jack laughed a little at the scowl Phil gave him, and couldn't believe that Pitch had made him freeze the yeti in his nightmare. Sending that particular thought to the far corner of his mind, Jack titled his head, "So, can I come in, or did you want me to spar again with you? If I remember correctly, you beat me soundly the last time. Maybe another time?"

Phil shook his head in what appeared to be exasperation, before the yeti waved a hand, growling something in a way that sounded like bemusement.

Jack passed by Phil, waving a hand, "Thanks, Phil. See you around." Baby Tooth waved at the yeti as Jack went by.

Phil, after watching the two other beings enter the workshop, shook his head in what looked like affection, before turning his attention back to guarding the front doors.

X-x-x

Jack entered the workshop and passed by the many elves wandering about, and shook his head on occasion, saying "no thanks" when offered food and drink.

North spotted Jack heading toward him, and greeted Jack cheerfully, "Ah, Jack. You finally came for visit. I could feel it, in my belly." North patted his ample stomach, chuckling.

Jack managed a smile, before a small frown took its place as his reason for visiting North replaced the cheerful feeling he had upon coming here.

North noticed almost immediately that not all was right with the mischievous winter spirit, "Jack, is something wrong?"

Jack ran a hand through his white hair, speaking a bit sheepishly, "Well, yeah…but I don't really feel up to talking about it just yet. I could come back later…"

"Is okay Jack. You can stay here until you want to talk." North studied Jack with a twinkle in his blue eyes, and he smiled though his beard, "You want to help yetis with the toys? Though they may just shoo you away, still is fun."

Jack was surprised by the offer, then grateful for the distraction from darker, unpleasant thoughts. "Sure!" Excited now, Jack followed North to where the yetis were busy making the toys. Jack smirked a tiny bit as he saw that many of the elves were making nuisances of themselves and causing the yetis great consternation.

Jack smiled as he hopped up onto an unoccupied work bench and watched North bustle around the workshop, his voice rising above the din around him as he inspected the toys. Jack spotted a yeti painstakingly coloring a group of toys red, and the winter spirit let out a laugh as North passed by the yeti.

"I don't like it. Make it blue."

The yeti let out a grumble of disbelief, as if this announcement from North put a huge damper on his day. North, oblivious to the distress he had caused, continued around to the different work benches and tables piled with toys to continue inspecting them.

North eventually settled at one table in particular, to where the yetis were testing out a new prototype of a flying machine.

Jack abandoned the bench he was on to get a closer look at the toy, and found that it looked to be a cross between a pirate ship and an alien space craft. "Is that thing supposed to be able to fly?"

North nodded distractedly as he inspected the nearly completed toy, "In theory, yes. Not sure if it will actually work though. May need less attachments." North would have continued to yammer on about the technical part of the machine, when an elf suddenly clambered onto the contraption and started dancing around on it like it had won a prize. North reached up to remove the creature, "Hey, is not ready yet." North wasn't quick enough to prevent the elf from starting up the toy, and the guardian of wonder watched with mild alarm as the contraption flew off and began to fly erratically around the workshop.

The yetis quickly moved other toys out of the way, grumbling their displeasure at the idea of something being broken by a careless elf.

Jack shook his head in bemusement and leapt up with the help of the wind to rescue the elf from falling, and to prevent the toy from crashing itself into pieces. After that particular incident, North deemed it safer to move the more completed toys into another room, out of the way of the elves. Jack volunteered to help move the toys, and cased great hilarity amongst the yetis as he struggled to carry some of the heavier toys. Jack didn't mind, and as soon as the toys were safely out of the way, Jack started up a snowball fight, causing a great ruckus as the elves took to throwing snowballs at everyone, yet failing to hit anything other than toys. Jack, still laughing at the unerring accuracy of the elves, was shooed out of the main workshop by the yetis, who had had enough fun for one day.

Jack's last view of the main workshop was some exasperated yetis trying to prevent the elves from their failed attempts to make something. The winter spirit smiled at the sight, before he continued to walk until he reached the main area of the workshop that held the globe, and saw that that was where North had disappeared to.

North saw Jack enter the room, and stopped staring up at the lit globe to turn to his fellow Guardian, "Jack, you have something you want to speak of now?"

Jack nodded, leaning against a nearby table, clutching his staff to his chest, and decided to get straight to the problem, "Pitch has been giving me the same nightmare for several nights. I can't get him to stop. Not yet, anyway."

North wasn't happy to hear that Pitch would do such a thing, "How is he doing this?"

Jack shrugged, "I'm not sure. Ever since I had the nightmare the first time, I keep feeling exhausted by the end of the day. I feel even more tired as I wake up from each of the nightmares."

North began to pace, "He's been giving you nightmares?" Seeing the nod, North was silent as he pondered, "Pitch giving you nightmares is not normal, no?"

Jack shook his head again, "No, this is the first time. He hasn't done anything like this before. Usually we just get into fights, then go out separate ways." Jack ran a hand along the staff, watching ice form, "He caught me off guard, and I think that was when he made the first nightmare occur. It had been so horribly realistic."

North frowned, "What happened, Jack?"

Jack just couldn't make eye contact with North's now worried expression, "In the nightmare, Pitch used some spell on me, and made me help him…get rid of the Guardians." Jack just couldn't bring himself to say the word kill.

There was a short silence, before North apologized, "Sorry, Jack. I'm thinking that we did not keep as good an eye on Pitch. He is sneaking around us all."

"Well, he is good at lurking around out of sight. That's how he got me when I was at the Tooth Palace. I dozed off in some shadows." Jack ran a hand through his hair for a second time that day, "I think he is just trying to get me back cause he didn't like that I beat him back the last time we fought."

North glanced up at the globe pensively, "You be needing to keep guard up Jack. Pitch is very sly. He twists things around when given the opportunity." North locked eyes with Jack, "Don't let Pitch lead you down the wrong path, Jack."

Jack twirled his staff so that it rested against his shoulder, "Don't worry, I can handle him, as long as he doesn't jump me with any more nightmares."

"And if he does, you will deal with it? Not let him win?"

Jack smirked a bit, "Oh, I'll deal with him all right. Especially if I do end up in that nightmare one more time."

"Just be careful." North's voice had taken on an oddly serious tone.

"I will." Jack knew that he would be, especially after Pitch had caught him off guard during the avalanche. Jack wondered why North was worried over a nightmare. Pitch was just getting fear in the only way he knew. Jack glanced around, "Mind if I stay here tonight? I think Pitch is less likely to cause trouble here than at the Tooth Palace."

"I am thinking that is true." North agreed, "You can stay here for as long as you like, Jack."

"Thanks." Jack watched North walk away, before he yawned and stretched. He was getting tired already, and it rather frustrated him. Jack took to the wind and landed on an area of the globe that didn't slowly rotate. It gave Jack a good vantage point, and there weren't many shadows nearby for Pitch to loom up out of. Jack watched the activity going on around below him, his staff still resting over one shoulder. Baby Tooth had moved herself to his hood, giving a tired little cheep, before going quiet. Jack smiled at her, before he lightly gripped the staff with both hands. Soon, the sound of the hustle and bustle of the yetis, the jingling of the elves' bells, and North's booming voice started to cause him to feel even more sleepy. Jack was feeling cheerful after being here at the North Pole, and wasn't bothered this time around if Pitch did happen to drop by to trap him in the nightmare again.

North turned from where he had just reprimanded two yetis about a toy, to look up at the small figure on the globe. Hopefully Jack could get a good night's sleep. He looked like he could use it.

Jack, in the meantime, was already prepared to confront Pitch if the Nightmare King happened to show up for him while he was asleep.

X-x-x

I'm on a roll posting chapters today, apparently. The next chapter will be called 'Going too far.' Only the second to last chapter really has to be beaten out of rough draft form now, as the rest of them just need some editing. The next 3 chapters are actually all shorter, as this was never intended to be a long winded story. As such, they will be ranging anywhere from 1,200 words to 1,900 words. I'll be getting all three up today, or it'll be one more today, and two tomorrow. It all depends on if my eyes can keep pace with me on the computer screen. I'm having such a great time typing this story up, which is rather twisted of me considering what's been going on in it.

criminalxxxmindsxxxfreak, your reviews make me go 'asdksf' every time I see them, and has been the main reason I've been putting out new chapters as soon as possible because I'm enjoying your responses, as well as the responses from the other reviewers. Though I do sort of scuff my foot on the ground in embarrassment at the idea that this story is as good as you're saying it is. So, thanks for getting me up off my lazy ass to get around to editing and posting the chapters. And Beanie-art1, I've never watched _Inception_, only ads for it, so maybe I'll get around to watching it some point.


	8. Ch 7: Going too far

X-x-x

No matter how ready Jack had been for the nightmare, he still found himself completely unprepared for what he found. Jack became aware that he was lying beneath some snow, and wondered if it was some sick joke of Pitch's that he would come back into the nightmare buried like Jamie and his friends had been. Jack sat up with a gasp. "Jamie," He muttered, and with a burst of energy, began using his hands to claw up out of the snow. Having a little trouble, Jack seized the staff that had been lying alongside him, and used it to poke up through the snow to see how far under he had been buried. Jack felt the staff break out of the snow above him, and the pale teen judged that he was several feet from freedom. Pulling the staff back, the winter spirit began to dig more and more frantically in his attempt to break free and help Jamie and his friends. Jack just hoped that he wasn't too late.

Finally, after a few tense minutes, Jack broke through the snow that had been piled onto him, and he poked his head out of the snow pile to get a good look around. The sight that greeted his light blue eyes momentarily stunned him, before he gripped his staff once more and scrambled out of the snow drift in alarm. Help had arrived, which meant that Jack didn't have to dig the van out of the snow with his bare hands. Jack was taken aback at the amount of emergency vehicles all around him, and the fact that the van had already been dug up out of the snow. So that was why the snow had been on top of him. The people hadn't seen him as they dug to look for the van. Jack felt a little better that it hadn't been Pitch's doing. Jack looked up anxiously at the predawn sky. Just how much time had gone by while he had been asleep? Utter horror flooded through Jack as he let out a shaky breath, reprimanding himself for thinking such a thing. Sternly, Jack reminded himself that this was all a horribly realistic nightmare. Pitch really knew what he was doing, as Jack couldn't believe how terrified he was at this very moment.

Jack brushed the snow off his hoodie, in a bit of a daze as he approached the van, wanting to reassure himself that Jamie was all right in this dream. The pale teen stopped short when he spotted a several news vans, the closest one with a female reporter speaking to the camera aimed in her direction.

"This is a terrible night, as a freak avalanche claims the lives of eight people. Their name have not yet been released, and at this point the authorities are saying that it appears as if the individuals died of asphyxiation."

Jack swayed on the spot, unable to comprehend the words that had just been spoken. With a slow turn of his head, and a growing dread settling in his stomach, Jack looked to the flashing lights of a few ambulances nearby. Then, the reporters' words sunk in. Dead. Eight people dead. Jamie...

Ice frosted along the staff as Jack's grasp tightened around it. Even though this was just an illusion used by Pitch, it had gone too far. There were some lines that never should be crossed, and Pitch had just leapt across that line a very far distance. The anger that was rising in Jack felt real, and he was going to use it to get the Nightmare King to make this the last nightmare he was ever going to have. With a stanch look of determination, Jack set out to locate Pitch before the horrible loss in this nightmare could fully sink in.

X-x-x

Waking oneself up from a nightmare, it turned out, was rather difficult when the puppet master was no where to be found.

Jack wanted to tear himself out of the nightmare, but it seemed as though Pitch had taken a hold of him and kept him out of reach of the Guardians, forcing him to see time go by. Jack could barely bring himself to visit the hospital where Jamie and his friends had been brought, and felt massively guilty when Jamie's mother and Sophie showed up at the hospital hours later. The reaction of Jamie's mother and sister to the news about Jamie and his friends was terrible, and Jack flew off, trying to beat down his feeling of utter helplessness and loss.

It was nearly impossible to stop himself from being scared, as it was terrifying to watch all of the children around the world lose their belief, when they realized that the Guardians were no longer there. It was a terrible blow, and Jack could feel himself beginning to weaken as belief in him began to fade as well. The pale teen wasn't just going to disappear, was he, now that there were so few that believed in him?

A few times, Jack had spotted Pitch, but he was never quite quick enough to catch the other, and Pitch appeared quite pleased that the winter spirit seemed unable to stop him.

The fourth time, however, Jack had managed to frost the end of Pitch's robes as the other dodged out of harm's reach. The Nightmare King lingered long enough for Jack to shout at him, "Stop this already, Pitch! Haven't you already gotten what you wanted?"

Pitch gave Jack a thin smile, "But I'm continuing to get such a lovely amount fear from you. Why should I stop now?" Pitch's smile turned predatory, "In any case, I rather think I'd like to see you completely beaten down. It'd be a nice change of pace."

Change of pace? Wasn't Jack miserable enough already after the beginning of this nightmare? "Pitch!" Jack raced forward, but had to stop short as Pitch phased through the shadows, a mocking laugh sounding all around Jack before stopping abruptly.

Each time Jack ran into Pitch after that, it seemed as though Pitch took great delight in Jack's more haggard appearance. Jack's only consolation was that he still retained his control over frost and could still soar along the wind, though it was becoming more difficult as time passed by.

The most recent sighting of Pitch made Jack believe that enough was enough. It was after Pitch had given Sophie a terrifying nightmare, and Jack had been unseen, even when he tried to make it snow in Sophie's room. Only her mother appeared to be able to calm her down, and Jack left the house with a lump in his throat.

Jack wanted to stop Pitch from doing this, but he first had to drag himself out of the despair and guilt he felt at losing Jamie in this nightmare, and the affects of children losing their belief in him and the other Guardians. Pitch had been right about it being mentally devastating to him after all.

Jack needed this nightmare to end, and the best way to go about it was to confront Pitch directly, and not let him slink off. Jack's anger began to slowly rise from all that had transpired in this nightmare. To even call it anger was an understatement. It was an icy cold fury at being forced to experience this. Jack was going to use that feeling to get the Nightmare King to make this the last nightmare he was ever going to have. If that meant that Jack had to stretch out of his comfort zone and get violent to get the message across to Pitch, he would.

Jack stared up at the half obscured moon overhead, feeling a little silly when he spoke aloud, as he wasn't sure if the man in the moon could even hear him in a nightmare, "I know I shouldn't get angry, but this has gone too far. It's not your fault that Pitch is doing what he does. It's in his nature." Jack shouldered his staff and took to the wind, not noticing that the moon gleamed a little brighter, as if the being there was trying to communicate with the winter spirit.

X-x-x

After careful planning and stalking of the Nightmare King, Jack secluded himself behind a few trees as he watched Pitch step along lightly across a half thawed landscape. Seeing that Pitch's sight was locked onto the moon above him, Jack moved from behind the cover of the trees and silently stalked forward, staff held aloft. There was a glint in Jack's eyes that was very uncharacteristic of him. The predatory gleam in the icy blue eyes was locked on to his enemy's back.

Pitch, unaware of the dangerous opponent stalking toward him with very dark thoughts, took in a breath as a fresh wave of fear rolled over him from some people in a nearby house.

These last few months had an absolute delight to Pitch, as he thoroughly enjoyed the fear from people all around the world. His power had grown substantially, even more than when he had almost beaten the Guardians years earlier. Pitch rolled his eyes up at the half visible moon, "I'll bet you never saw this coming, did you? Perhaps I'll go finish off the last Guardian before he causes me any trouble." Something whipped Pitch hard across the back, and the frost that froze over where he had been struck left Pitch in no doubt as to the identity of his attacker.

Pitch turned and blocked another attack, rather surprised to find a flat expression on the winter spirit's face. What really caught Pitch's attention, however, were Jack's eyes. In the depths of the icy blue stare, the predatory gleam was gone, and Pitch saw a mixture of unbelievable sadness and pure, seething hatred. An interesting combination. Pitch brought forth a scythe, a terrible smile crossing his face, "Ready to join the Guardians, Jack?" Pitch had been ready to fight a Jack with a shattered will, after all that had happened to him, and Pitch had intended to savor the fight. The Nightmare King had been unprepared to deal with the amount of ferocity he was met with.

Jack was in no mood for any banter, or to look at Pitch any longer than necessary. Jack struck hard, fast, and merciless, each blow of his staff and bursts of frost falling with the emotions swirling within him.

The sorrow he had of never seeing Tooth fluttering past him in the night. Anger at the cowardly way Pitch had finished off Bunnymund. Despair that he'd never hear North's booming laughter again or see any of his wondrous inventions. Pain and rage that Sandy had been destroyed again, and that Jack would never see the golden sand giving children dreams. Cold fury at the way Pitch had caused him to trigger an avalanche to harm Jamie and the other children. Seething hatred that Pitch kept making him see this nightmare, and wouldn't leave him alone.

Jack nearly snarled as he lashed out at Pitch, when he noticed that his opponent was now smiling patronizingly at him. The expression drove Jack to a level of anger he never thought himself capable of. The closest Jack had felt it was when he had seen Sandy vanish beneath the black sand two years previously.

Pitch's look of amusement vanished completely as a massive storm of ice and frost hurtled toward him, accompanied by a hoarse cry of cold fury from Jack. Pitch disappeared beneath the onslaught of the freezing attack, completely lost from view.

Jack was breathing heavily from the exertion of the attack, yet he felt no satisfaction from driving Pitch from existence. It wouldn't bring back the Guardians or Jamie and his friends, even if he destroyed Pitch over and over. It didn't matter that this was just a nightmare caused by Pitch. The pain was real, as was the feeling of loneliness that washed over Jack as he tried to catch his breath. That pain and loss would carry over into his waking hours, and it would be a long time before he would ever be able to recover from the psychological impact this nightmare had caused him. He wanted nothing more than to wake up and seek solace with his friends.

Jack rested his forehead against the staff, the now familiar feeling of drifting off hitting him. As his eyes closed, Jack realized that this feeling of drifting off in this nightmare meant that Pitch had lost control over it, just as the pale teen thought he would. Jack couldn't wait to see if North had managed to tag the Nightmare King.

X-x-x

I know I've said this before already, but I really love writing an evil Pitch. Weirdly, it makes me very happy. And apparently when I edit, the chapters end up longer than I anticipate. Next chapter will be Jack paying Bunnymund a visit.

Thanks in advance for the reviews/favs/follows! I went right to editing this chapter after posting the previous one.


	9. Ch 8: Warren Warning

X-x-x

Jack opened his eyes, feeling dead inside. He hoped fervently that by defeating Pitch in the nightmare that it meant he would be free of any future ones. Even if it was a nightmare, sometimes it just seemed too real, and that meant Pitch had been trying very hard to make it so. It was oddly flattering, in a terrifying way, at the amount of thought Pitch had put into the nightmare. The loss and pain of Jamie had been carried along from the nightmare, and Jack's eyes teared up a little as he took in a shuddering breath of air.

Jack sat up once he wasn't feeling so sick to his stomach with what he had just been forced to witness in the nightmare, and realized that he was on the ground of the globe room in North's home.

"Jack?"

Jack looked up from where he was seated, and found North, Baby Tooth and a few of the yetis looking down at him worriedly. Jack blinked up at them, "What happened?" Seeing North holding his blades made Jack feel relieved, as did the yetis surrounding him. It meant that Pitch had likely tucked tail and fled, after being beaten back after taking advantage of a sleeping person. Baby Tooth, upon seeing Jack awake and coherent, zipped forward to take her spot on his shoulder. Jack offered a tiny smile to the fairy, before the pale teen turned his attention back to his fellow Guardian.

North had let his stance relax, and waved away a few of the yetis, "Go check and make sure he is gone." After seeing the yetis leave, North sheathed his weapons, shaking his head, "Pitch came through shadows suddenly. Nightmares attacked, and he wasted no time in giving you nightmare. Couldn't get to you easily. Pitch kept sending more Nightmares and sand weapons."

"No one got hurt?" Jack asked anxiously, thinking about Phil and North himself in particular. Jack was relieved when he saw the bearded Guardian shake his head.

"No injuries. Pitch was just stalling for time." North peered concernedly down at Jack, reaching out a hand, "I'm thinking he gave you another bad one. You okay, Jack?"

Jack took the offered hand, and allowed North to help him to his feet. Jack flipped his staff laying on the ground with a flick of his foot, taking hold of the staff once more, "I'll be fine...I think. I really don't want to talk about it this time."

North nodded in understanding, before he frowned, "Pitch seems to be going too far. You talk to Bunnymund. He might be able to help with problem."

Asking the guardian of hope for advice hadn't even crossed his mind. Jack nodded, "I'll go do that now, before Pitch can try and jump me again."

"Be careful, Jack." North said, as Jack headed for the exit of the workshop with Baby Tooth. There was a brief flash of sadness in his eyes, before North lumbered off to prevent a few of the elves from making off with some of the flying machines.

X-x-x

Jack found it easy to navigate the wind to locate the entrance to the Warren (after a brief visit by Jamie's home to assure himself that his friend was still perfectly fine). As Jack flew through the air, thoughts raced through his mind. Bunnymund. Maybe the Guardian of hope would be able to tell him of ways to block the nightmare or something. After all, Jack wasn't sure if in the nightmare Bunny could have actually broken him free of Pitch's control. Maybe there was something to that. He needed to find out.

Jack navigated the tunnel that led to the main part of the Warren, and he looked about the lush landscape for the familiar figure of Bunnymund. Jack spotted a few of the stone egg Guards and they appeared to be watching him. Jack smiled a little uncertainly at them, "Do you know where Bunnymund is?"

"He's right here, mate."

Jack turned around quickly to find himself nearly face to face with Bunny, who was observing him with a bit of a perplexed expression. Jack offered a thin smile, "Hey, Bunny."

Bunnymund eyed the pale teen suspiciously, "You aren't going to cause a blizzard here, are ya? Cause I'll have to boot you out then. I don't want to see what happens if my eggs get frozen. They might start to be cheerful, like you."

Jack laughed a little, and Bunny appeared to relax, as he nodded to himself, as if he had just learned something crucial about the winter spirit. Jack was curious as to what that was as he responded to Bunny's query, "No, I came here to talk to you. I wanted to see if I could get some advice."

Bunnymund's ears rose up, "About what?"

"About Pitch and the nightmares he's been giving me for the past several nights. They're getting worse, and I'm starting to be too exhausted to do anything about it." Jack responded, leaning against his staff. Baby Tooth settled more comfortably on his shoulder as she watched Bunny's reaction.

Bunnymund scowled, "That shadowy coward. Why didn't you say so sooner? I bet he has a rather tight grip on the nightmare, doesn't he?"

Jack looked a little guilty, "The nightmare I just woke up from seemed to last for months."

Bunnymund threw his paws up in frustration with the pale teen before him, "Then its going to be difficult for you to get past it."

"What do you mean?" Jack hoped this didn't mean that Bunny wasn't going to be able to help him.

Bunny locked eyes with Jack, "You said its been getting worse, right?"

"Yeah...everyone...everyone is gone. I'm the last Guardian in the nightmare and I could feel my power beginning to leave me as the children stated losing their belief." Jack looked miserable as he thought about that particular feeling, and was glad that he only felt tired right now.

"Well, I'll see if I can figure out any wards, mate. It'll keep him off your back for awhile. I'll need to think about this further, though." Bunnymund stated, twitching his ears a bit. He still looked rather agitated that Pitch was doing something like this to Jack.

Jack looked profoundly relieved that something temporary could at least be done about the nightmare.

"But while I'm looking into the wards, I need you to be really careful when you do run into that shadowy sneak, either here or in that nightmare." Bunnymund added, crossing his forearms and giving Jack a no nonsense look.

Jack laughed, "I'm sure he'd appreciate being called that." The winter spirit's eyes dimmed a little, "I will be careful. It just sure would be nice to know why he keeps giving me the same nightmare."

Bunnymund's paw reached out and dropped down onto Jack's shoulder, "Hey now, buck up. That frown doesn't suit you."

Jack managed a small smile, realizing now why Bunny had been jesting about freezing the eggs. He had been trying to cheer him up. "It's kind of hard to be cheerful with what's been going on. Whenever I've woken up since that nightmare started, I have to keep reminding myself that it was just a dream. It's getting worse. It seems like…I don't know…that unless I go to see you guys when I wake up, it's as if you were really…" Jack cut himself off, not wanting to finish that particular thought. After all, he had made sure that his friends were all right, and Jack just had to defeat Pitch while he was awake, to get him to stop giving him nightmares.

"Jack."

Jack turned his eyes back to Bunnymund, who had dropped his paw from the pale teen's shoulder, "Bunny?" The other Guardian's expression had turned a little bit stern, green eyes serious.

"Listen here, mate, and listen well. You're only scaring yourself if you think like that, and that is exactly what Pitch wants. Why don't you take your own advice? What you told that little ankle biter's brother? Jamie, right?" Bunny's ears twitched, as if he heard something, before continuing, "Well, a little spin on it, anyway. Just because you can't see us all the time, doesn't mean we're not there." Bunnymund tapped Jack's chest lightly, "And we'll always be here, no matter what, so you never have to feel like you're really alone."

Jack was momentarily speechless, before he quickly drew a hand across his eyes, like he had when he had spoken with Tooth earlier, as a small smile crossed his lips, "Wow, I didn't think I'd ever see the day where you would quote me and use some of my own words against me to get a point across."

Bunny snorted and shoved Jack in the shoulder in playful amusement, though his voice was tinged with the faintest amount of embarrassment, "Ahh, away with you."

Jack grinned a little at the other's discomfort as he headed off, staff propped up against one shoulder, feeling better than he had when he had woken up earlier in North's workshop. Baby Tooth, sensing his mood, chirped a little. Jack would come back later when he thought enough time had passed for Bunnymund to look into the wards he had mentioned.

"Remember what I said about Pitch. Don't let yourself believe you're alone. We're there for you, even when it seems we aren't. Pitch just wants you to fall into a trap where you end up alone." Bunnymund called after him, his voice still serious.

"Don't worry, I'll be ready for him when I see him." Jack called over his shoulder as he exited the vibrant warren. Behind him, Bunnymund was still watching where Jack had disappeared out of his home. Turning, Bunny walked further into his warren, a look of uncharacteristic sadness in his eyes. Then, as quickly as it had shown, the look vanished, to be replaced by a world-weary one.

With Bunnymund's parting words echoing in his mind, Jack emerged outside of the Warren. Jack already knew that he needed to be more careful around Pitch. The winter spirit yawned as he took to the sky, heading back to Burgess. He'd take a short rest, and hopefully manage to avoid Pitch and the nightmare. The gray paroled man seemed to be taking an unusual amount of interest in him.

Jack's eyes fluttered close as he settled into a tree comfortably. Jack supposed that, while it was quite a horrible nightmare, that at least Pitch was leaving the rest of the Guardians alone for the time being. Baby Tooth settled beneath his chin with a reassuring little peep, and soon Jack felt himself beginning to drift off unintentionally. The pale teen couldn't help it. He was so tired. However, as he rested the staff across his chest, Jack smiled as he thought back on Bunnymund's words. The guardian of hope was right.

The rest of the Guardians would always be there for him, when Jack needed them to be.

X-x-x

Argh, North and Bunnymund, why are you so hard to write?

I am on a creative roll today, tonight, whatever. Ok, I _might_ have posted the next chapter tonight, but it'll have to wait until after I sleep and then have time to wake up in the morning. I believe my eyes are throwing in the metaphorical towel tonight.


	10. Ch 9: Never-ending nightmare

X-x-x

Jack wasn't all that surprised to find himself in the nightmare once more, though he was a little disappointed. Jack saw the enormous amount of ice and frost that covered several trees in front of him, which reminded him of what had occurred. That's right. He had defeated Pitch in this nightmare; had buried him beneath a storm of ice and frost. The winter spirit looked around the silent night landscape, a bit puzzled. If that was the case, and he had defeated Pitch here...then why had he been drawn back into it? Was it because he had only defeated an illusion of Pitch? Jack let out a frustrated breath of air. Did that mean he needed to confront Pitch when he was awake after all? To make this stop?

Jack glanced around the eerily silent forest of ice, before he walked away to emerge into a clearing by the pond. Jack scowled a little. He disliked the fact that Pitch had come to Burgess. This was Jack's sometimes home, and he didn't appreciate Pitch causing a disturbance there. Jack settled next to the pond's edge, taking another clearing breath. The air was still crisp, as winter hadn't quite left the land, and Jack closed his eyes briefly to enjoy the cool breeze.

Jack opened his eyes again after that little indulgence, and that was when the overwhelming weight of weariness struck him. Jack leaned against his staff for support as he realized that there were very few children of the world that still held on to the hope that he was real, and not a figment of their imagination. The exhausted feeling made Jack wobble, but he managed to stay standing as he let out a bitter chuckle. It was a horrid feeling, not to be believed in and have repercussions because of it, but if this was the worst that Pitch could do after everything else he had done in this nightmare, Jack would endure it. At least this time around the nightmare wasn't so bad, and it was more like the dreams he normally might have experienced. A lonely landscape where he was always alone, where even in his dreams he couldn't be seen by everyone. The pale teen let out a low sigh of relief, hoping that Pitch's hold over this nightmare was waning, and he'd be here only a short time before he would wake up.

Jack twirled his staff, feeling his spirit rise up even through he still felt a little sluggish. Jack tried to figure out what to do while waiting to wake up. The thought of what had happened to the other Guardians in this nightmare, as well as Jamie and his friends, rose up from the back of his mind, and the thought made him a little queasy. The pale teen almost had the mind to go and see to them, to make sure that they were taken care of properly. Jack let his staff tap the ground as he pondered.

Finally, Jack shook his head a little. It was just a dream, so there wasn't any reason to be doing such a thing. It would only cause him further emotional pain to see the state his friends were in. The winter spirit didn't want to see it again, as the nightmare was making things quite clear to him as he thought back on what had happened. No, Jack was going to keep his fear to a minimum. He had the unnerving thought of Pitch hovering near him where he slept, just waiting for fear to rise in him. No, he wouldn't give the Nightmare King what he wanted.

Jack lifted his head to look up at the still half obscured moon, and felt a little saddened by the fact that he still never heard from the man in the moon. The winter spirit was curious what the distant being would think of what was happening in this nightmare. Was the man in the moon present in dreams, or was it just a reflection, an illusion? Jack blinked back tears the longer he stared up at the moon. Though right now, it seemed like something was different. Something that was almost familiar with the bright object in the sky.

Jack narrowed his eyes, a little frown crossing his face. It seemed almost as if…as if the man in the moon were trying to tell him something. Maybe he could speak to Jack in dreams? Whether they were a pleasant dream or a nightmare? That would be rather nice. Jack could now hear him…or rather, sense something? Jack could tell that he was definitely picking up on what appeared to be emotions…it seemed like distress and helpless rage. What could possibly be wrong now? Pitch was gone; no one could have survived an attack like one he had unleashed, right? Even in the nightmare, the pale teen had managed to vanquish the Nightmare King. Jack was a bit uneasy as the moon seemed to gleam brighter, like something was distressing the being up there. What could it be?

Sudden, searing pain tore across Jack's back, ripping through clothing and skin. The winter spirit let loose a strangled cry of pure agony as he toppled forward, where he collapsed to the still slightly snowy ground of the forest. Realization sunk in as Jack felt the throbbing pain race across his back. The man in the moon...he had been trying to warn him. Jack grunted in pain as a foot dug into his side and kicked him over. Jack took in a shuddering hiss of breath when he found himself settle on to his wounded back. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Before Jack could even think to retaliate, or realize that his staff had fallen out of his hand, a heavy weight dropped onto his chest.

Pitch looked down at Jack with a sneer, his scythe resting on the winter spirit's chest. Pitch moved the blade so that it nicked Jack's throat, as sarcasm slid into each of his words, like the Nightmare King couldn't believe the idiocy of the being lying on the ground, "Really, Frost? I would have expected you to be well versed in sneak attacks by now."

"I didn't think I'd have to worry about it, but I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less from a coward." Jack spat, as he tilted his head to try and relieve pressure from the blade across his throat. He could barely think as the pain in his back increased in its intensity. Jack bit his lip to keep himself from crying out, but failed miserably as Pitch decided to make him really feel his injury.

Pitch pressed down harder, which caused Jack to thrash in agony as his wounded back was pressed against the ground. Pitch observed the writhing winter spirit with something like twisted pleasure in his eyes. Once Jack had quieted to a few odd whimpers here and there, Pitch spoke softly, "Did you really believe that I'd be so easy to destroy? Did you?"

Jack struggled to catch his breath, and tired to get a hold of himself through the waves of pain he was experiencing. Once he had gotten his shuddering breath under a semblance of control, Jack took a shaky deep breath, and reached up to grip the scythe, "If you're going to kill me, do it already. I'm tired of this. You had your fun, and I want to wake up now."

Pitch studied Jack intently, searching the icy blue gaze below him, where a glare was firmly fixed on him. The Nightmare King almost seemed to be giving Jack's words serious thought, before Pitch gave the winter spirit a pitying smile, "No, I don't think I will. There's so much more _fun_ I can have with you, Jack. Your fear is simply wonderful. Why would I want to cut that short?" Pitch let the scythe vanish, as a calculated look was narrowed down upon Jack, "Besides, didn't I already tell you? I had a much better idea in mind."

Terror leapt in Jack's throat as he realized just what Pitch's intentions were, and his scream of protest was cut short as Pitch muttered something under his breath. The Nightmare King watched as Jack stilled, and the gray skinned man was wearing a sharp, wickedly delighted smile, "Get up." Pitch watched as a mute Jack stood up shakily, swaying on his feet in an attempt to stay upright. Pitch pursed his lips in irritation. He'd have to get the wound he inflicted treated, or Jack would be useless to him. Pitch reached out a hand to steady Jack, and led him through the forest, away from the pond and toward the surrounding shadows, "This way." Pitch all but purred, drinking in the fear and loving the look of resigned horror in Jack's eyes.

X-x-x

Jack didn't believe that this nightmare could have gotten any worse than it already had been, but he was wrong. It got so much more worse, and there was nothing he could do about it. A tiny bit of him still hoped that the Guardians were searching for him and wherever Pitch had taken him to draw him into this nightmare. He had to believe what Bunnymund had told him. That he was never really alone, and that the Guardians would be there for hm. Jack had to believe in that, otherwise he knew that his will would have shattered even further than it already had.

After Pitch had used the spell on him, Jack had gotten a little down time as Pitch allowed his injury to heal, even going so far as to take Jack to Antarctica. The bitter cold of the place made Jack feel much better, even if the exhaustion he felt from the children losing belief in him and the Guardians still took its toll. Jack thought that if he had been able to linger in Antarctica, he might have found it in himself to break free of Pitch's control for even a moment to escape whatever nefarious deeds the Nightmare King had in mind. However, that hope was dashed, as Pitch had only allowed the two of them to remain in Antarctica long enough for Jack to recover from the wound the Nightmare King had inflicted upon him.

Things had gone from bad to worse as soon as the two of them took their leave of the frigid land, and Jack was helpless to stop Pitch when the Nightmare King made it clear just what he was going to have Jack help him with.

Jack felt the first stirrings of unease as Pitch led him to a rather large mansion on a quiet corner of a street. Jack was unable to even voice his displease of Pitch gripping his upper arm as the Nightmare King led them into a shadow near the towering structure. Jack hated the sensation of going through the darkness, but it wasn't exactly a fear, so at least Pitch was unaware of just how much it bothered him. Jack could still look around, as that still seemed to be the only thing that he still retrained control over. A very small control at that. The mansion looked like it hadn't had any inhabitants in quite some time, and Jack wondered what the heck the two of them were doing there when he heard voices. What sounded like a few children, and one or two teens.

Pitch was smirking at the look in Jack's eyes as he saw that the winter spirit finally understood what they were going to do. Pitch patted Jack's arm lightly, an almost unconscious gesture as he spoke with uncontrolled glee, "Remember what I said after you triggered that avalanche? I thought a little cold and dark would be perfect to greet the children with." Pitch gave Jack a razor sharp smile, more amused when he spotted a glint of anger in Jack's eyes, "I suppose you don't like the idea, being a Guardian of fun and all that, but guess what Jack?" Pitch moved in close, leaning over so that he could look into Jack's eyes, "You lost. You don't have any choice anymore but to help me, so your little show of resistance in that little mind of yours will need to stop." The anger was replaced by a look of dread, and Pitch liked that look very much indeed, and the Nightmare King smiled as he amended a bit of his words, "Though, I suppose you aren't exactly a Guardian anymore under my control, but I can still let you have some fun. Though...my kind of fun is a little different than yours, so it might take some getting used to."

Jack wanted nothing more than to lash out and beat every inch of Pitch's body until the boogeyman decided to never show his face to him again. Jack was never going to enjoy anything Pitch made him do with the loss of control over his body. Jack would get through this, somehow, and Pitch would regret ever giving this nightmare to him.

Pitch noticed the look of defiance that Jack had in his eyes now, and Pitch gave him a hair-raising smile, "Oh, going to be difficult, are you? Very well then. Let's see how long it takes to break that little mind of yours. I'm thinking you'll come to enjoy this, and when you do, I want to see and feel the fear rise from you when you realize that you like this." The look Pitch got made him throw his head back and laugh stridently. Oh, Jack was so much fun, and the defiance made it even sweeter. Pitch knew that sooner or later, Jack would shatter, and he was quite looking forward to that moment.

Jack heard the children and teens getting closer, and his thoughts of defiant acts were extinguished as Pitch dropped a hand onto his shoulder and squeezed a little bit, "Now Jack, this mansion is said to be haunted, so let's give them what they expect, hm?"

Jack let out a sound of wordless protest in his mind, as Pitch walked off, and he followed along after his enemy. Jack fought desperately to stop himself from doing this, but the hold Pitch had over him was too strong, and Jack was unable to break free. The winter spirit could only watch helplessly, and he hated it with every fiber of his being that Pitch was turning this nightmare into a horror fest now.

X-x-x

"Hey, Billy? Did you hear that?" A boy of eight years old came to a halt in the dusty mansion, gripping his older brother's vest.

"Hear what?" The older brother, Billy, asked, a little annoyed that his younger brother was still so clingy. He hadn't heard anything, though he did feel a bit of a breeze, but Billy merely wrote that off as the mansion was likely to be drafty. After all, no one had lived there for decades.

"I hear something too." A girl of the age of eight or nine looked around, and glanced over at a ten year old boy standing next to her, "You hear it?"

The boy standing next to the girl nodded, "Yeah, it's kind of weird."

Abby, the other teenager of the small group of five, rolled her eyes and cast a glance over at Billy, "This is such a stupid idea, Billy. Even if there are 'ghosts' here, we'll never know because they're going to think every noise or breeze in this old house is a spirit."

Billy rolled his shoulder in a shrug, "Maybe some of the noises are from spirits, Abby. It is nighttime after all, and that's when they're supposed to come out."

Billy's younger brother was tugging at Billy's vest harder this time, "Did you hear a laugh?"

Abby sighed heavily, "I told you the two of us should have come alone. We're never going to see or hear anything with these kids here."

Billy's younger brother puffed up indignantly, "I'm not scared or anything, I just hear something!"

Abby was about to comment on the young boys words when she felt a cool breeze pass by her, and she shivered.

Billy noticed this, "What is it, Abby?"

"I felt a cold breeze, but maybe it was just my imagination." Abby said, looking a little uncomfortable and not at all believing her own words.

A heavy, cold breeze with a little frost mixed in blew past all five of them, and the youngest of the group let out a little shriek at the sudden cold. The rest of the group began to feel uneasy as they noticed that their breath was now visible, and the temperature of the room they were in had plummeted at least twenty degrees. They all unconsciously moved a little closer to one another.

"G..ghost?" One of the children questioned of Billy and Abby, but the teens were too busy trying to come up with ways to explain away the sudden cold of the room.

Billy's younger brother started when the large mirror in the room began to frost up, covering it in a thin sheen of ice. Then, hand prints began to cover the surface of the iced mirror, and the group of five watched in horrified fascination as the ice began to disappear beneath the hand prints, until a small surface of the mirror was uncovered. It was almost as if an invitation had been made to go and take a look to see if there was anything in the mirror.

The two teens and three children all looked at one another as if to ask who would be the brave one to go and take a closer look. Eventually, a silent unanimous agreement was reached. Billy stepped forward to approach the mirror, as he was the oldest of the group, and the least likely of them to freak out at any sudden movements.

Billy faced the mirror squarely, and studied the mirror with a discerning eye. He saw his reflection, and those of his four companions, but nothing else. Billy scoffed, "I don't see anything. I think someone is just..." Billy's words trailed off as he saw something appear in the mirror in the doorway of the room, standing tall over the rest of the people in the room. With a feeling of dread, Billy inched a little closer to get a good look at the mirror and the figure standing in the doorway. It was a man dressed in black, and when Billy squinted to make out the eyes on the figure, Billy realized with a stab of fright that the figure was looking directly at him, and smiling in a predatory way.

Billy stumbled away from the mirror with a strangled cry, and spun about, as he ended up backing into the mirror as he saw the dark figure standing in the doorway. Wordlessly, Billy tried to communicate to his companions that something was behind them, but could only manage to point.

Abby rolled her eyes, "Billy, quit trying to scare us. It isn't funny." As soon as she finished speaking, she froze in place as a small puff of air fell across her neck. Abby then rolled her eyes, "Very funny, you guys, but that isn't going to scare me." With her mind set on another teenagers having snuck up in her to try and scare her, Abby turned around with an annoyed expression on her face to confront the perpetrator. Abby's eyes widened as she was confronted with an amused looking Pitch, who had leaned over a bit to be level with the teen.

Pitch took immense pleasure in the fear rising with in the teen, and he gave her a wicked smile, flashing his teeth, "Good evening. Were you expecting someone else?"

Abby finally let loose a shriek of horror and scrambled back from Pitch, racing out of the other door to the room without a second glance back. The children, spotting Pitch and his creepy smile, let loose similar cries and fled the room after Abby.

Only Billy seemed incapable of moving, as he was still trying to find some logical explanation for the dark figure in the doorway. Billy blinked as the figure suddenly vanished and he let out a shaky laugh.

"Something amusing you, boy?" A silky whisper queried in his ear.

Billy launched himself forward at the sudden voice, and turned quickly, seeing that the dark figure had appeared behind him. That wasn't possible. It wasn't...

Pitch clasped his hands behind his back, tilting his head at the teen, "I think you were leaving, weren't you?"

A cold blast of air slammed into Billy, which knocked him backward out the door and into the hallway. Billy surged to his feet and fled the mansion in an undignified manner, but at at this point he really didn't care. Billy was not going to be going to any haunted places for quite some time.

Back inside the mansion, Pitch was chuckling to himself and enjoying the fear that had been caused. He grinned at the still partially iced mirror, before he stepped languidly out into the hall, where Jack stood silently, holding his staff. Pitch circled Jack, peering at the winter spirit's eyes, as the Nightmare King realized that this was the only way he would know what the other was thinking. Pitch smiled pleasantly at what he saw. Loathing. Pitch shook his head, "You can't tell me that wasn't even a little bit fun. After all, none of them were harmed." Not bothering to see the emotion that brought up, Pitch led Jack out of the open door of the mansion. "Come along now, there's still much to do tonight."

Jack had no idea how long he could last like this. Pitch was really stretching out this nightmare, and Jack was terrified to wonder just how long he would be forced to endure it.

X-x-x

The fear fest continued every night. Each time it brought a new surge of fear to the pale teen, and he knew that Pitch was enjoying his helplessness. Some days Jack didn't even try to fight the spell Pitch had put on him, and just went along with what the other told him to do. Eventually, Jack found it to be not as bad as he had envisioned, and almost, almost enjoyed it. However, that soon vanished as one night Pitch was gave him a knowing smile.

"Oh? Are you starting to enjoy yourself, Jack? It isn't as bad as you thought it would be, right? Having a little fun now, are we?" Pitch let out a nasty little laugh as the look in Jack's eyes widened a little in horror at the very thought. Pitch slid a little closer to Jack, appearing to take in the surge of fear, "Hmm...that's better. I was wondering when you were going to realize it." Pitch patted Jack's cheek, "But I rather doubt its enough to completely shatter you. I don't mind if you have a little fun, but it seems that you aren't going to anymore. Too bad."

Jack wanted to let loose a stream of verbal abuse the Nightmare King, but was unable to, and this seemed to cheer Pitch as well, as he led Jack away for the night.

X-x-x

This nightmare was never ending. It was nearly impossible for Jack to comprehend the duration of this nightmare. Maybe he was imagining things, and it just seemed like forever that Pitch had had him under his control. Jack found it a little nerve racking that they ended up scaring different children, so it made it seem as though years were going by.

The concept of having years of a continuous nightmare was too terrible to think about, and Jack mostly tried to distance himself from it. He'd wake up, he knew he would, because his friends weren't going to leave him in this state. And when Jack woke up? He was going to gather the Guardians together and talk seriously about doing something about Pitch. The Nightmare King shouldn't be allowed to give one person so many nightmares just to draw out fear.

Jack heard the soft footfalls, as Pitch had a habit of leaving the winter spirit in the darkened lair until night came. The footsteps announced the return of his tormentor. Jack mentally braced himself for the coming night. He would get through this. He had to. For his friends.

Pitch emerged into the gloom of his home, and walked over to where he had left Jack earlier that day. Pitch was darkly pleased that the enslavement spell he had used could last for so long, but Pitch suspected that it was in part due to Jack's now shattered will. Pitch circled Jack for a moment, to take in the little prickle of fear, before he gestured toward one darkened area of his lair, "Let's go, Jack. I've found some children who haven't yet experienced any fear. What better way to greet them than with a touch of ice and a caress of shadows?"

Jack followed along after Pitch, making no move or words of protest when Pitch slid a hand across the pale teen's shoulders, and took him into the darkness.

Inside the cage his mind had become while in this nightmare, Jack was screaming in absolute mental anguish. He wanted this torment to end, but knew that as long as Pitch could siphon fear from him, he wouldn't be removed from the world. It left Jack in a helpless rage he could do nothing about. To make things even worse, Jack knew it was a nightmare, and he worried just how long Pitch would be able to drag it along this time. Jack wasn't sure at this point if he'd be able to keep his sanity when he finally woke up. The pale teen hated the thought of hiding from Pitch amongst his friends, but if that's what needed to be done to prevent Pitch from doing this on a regular basis, he would do it.

Pitch reveled in the fear as he moved the two of them through the shadows. He wondered just how long he'd be able to keep Jack around before he'd have to put the winter spirit out of his misery. Pitch smiled lazily as he and Jack stepped out of the shadows. It wouldn't be any time soon.

Jack's wordless fear was quite intoxicating, and it would be a shame to lose that. After all, the thought of Jack seeing everything that he was doing and unable to stop himself was such a wonderfully evil thing that Pitch had come to like quite a bit. Looking into those ice blue eyes and seeing the pain and fear and, eventually, the pleading for him to stop this already was insidiously delightful. Pitch looked up at the dark night sky, where the man in the moon was barely visible. Pitch sighed contentedly as he let the fear wash over him. He was going to enjoy this as long as he could draw it out. All of this fear around him, including Jack's own delicious fear. The Nightmare King didn't want it to end.

As Pitch walked forward, he was oblivious to the fact that Jack was bashing the cage of his mind desperately, as the last threads of hope for Pitch finishing him off that night left him. Soon after, the winter spirit just stopped fighting and watched dully as they approached their destination. Jack was resigned to the fact that his body just wouldn't listen to him. It didn't mean that he didn't try some days, despite the disappointing outcome.

The sudden sensation of his eyelids drooping gave Jack a small surge of hope that he hadn't felt in a long time, though he didn't miss Pitch make a rather irritable tsking sound. Whatever. Jack was going to finally wake up and deal with this problem. No use tip-toeing around Pitch anymore.

This nightmare was going to end, one way or another.

X-x-x

The reason these past few chapters got up so quickly was because they had already been mostly finished. Originally they had been part of a different story I was working on, but I decided that they would work well with this story when the idea first came to mind. I believe I caught any grammatical mistakes in this chapter, so it should read smoothly...though...I think it is very terrible of me to really like this chapter. It ended up way longer than I thought it would be. I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing, but with Pitch being in it...I couldn't help it.

So...thank you for the reviews/favs/follows. They make me very happy and motivate the heck out of me.

I'm seriously considering running my errands for today and then secluding myself in a coffee shop to type up the eleventh chapter out of its rough draft state. I'm thinking that the story will be done and the last two chapters will be posted before next weekend. One more main chapter left, and then the epilogue.


	11. Ch 10: The Truth

X-x-x

Jack cried out in utter horror as he toppled out of a tree. The sensation of falling and hitting the ground gave him pause, before the pale realized that he was back to where he had fallen asleep. Jack let out a breath he had been holding, before he curled up at the base of the tree. Jack made himself as small as possible as he attempted to drag himself out of the fear and desperation and utter helplessness he had been feeling in that nightmare.

Jack choked back a sob at all that Pitch had caused him to do. Frightening the children was the worst thing that Jack thought Pitch could force him to do, besides harming the Guardians and Jamie. Jack couldn't keep himself together, no matter how hard he tired. The dream had been all too real, and with a soft sob escaping his lips, Jack crumpled further in on himself and began to cry.

It wasn't fair. Why was Pitch doing this to him? He wasn't really that evil, was he? Pitch just wanted to bask in fear, and Jack had given him a wonderful opportunity to do just that. The crying was partly in anger at himself for allowing Pitch to get such a tight hold on him in the nightmare. Why had Jack even attempted to confront Pitch in the nightmare? That's when everything had gone downhill. The winter spirit should have just avoided Pitch, and given the Guardians time to chase him away from this forest where Jack had fallen asleep.

Jack's soft sobbing continued for an undetermined amount of time as he desperately tried to get himself under control. Jack was failing miserably, because he couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen if he fell into the nightmare again, and the Guardians weren't able to come to the rescue. What then? Would he be reduced to this in his waking hour? An emotionally destroyed Guardian who couldn't do anything because he was so terrified of what plans the Nightmare King had in store for him if he let his guard down?

Finally, something welled within Jack, and the crying finally tapered off, as the pale teen ran a frustrated hand over his eyes. A resolute look mingled with one of absolute devastation crossed his face. Jack was uncertain how long it would take to pull himself out of the swirl of emotional trauma that Pitch had inflicted upon him, but he just couldn't let Pitch win. He wouldn't let Pitch continue to do this. It was going to end, and Jack was the one that was going to end it. No free passes for his enemy this time. If Jack saw him while he was awake right now, the winter spirit was going to do what he did in the nightmare, and unleash a massive storm of frost and ice, making sure to finish the Nightmare King off this time.

A decision made on a course of action, Jack uncurled from the ball he had put himself into, and stood up, smacking his staff against the ground in determination. First thing was first. He was going to go visit each of the Guardians, and have them gather, to deal with Pitch once and for all. Causing fear in children was one thing, as that was just in Pitch's nature, and he needed a little fear to keep up his strength. It was another thing completely to put Jack through emotional hell and think that there would be no repercussions.

"Let's go, Baby Tooth. We need to get the others and make Pitch stop this game of his."

Jack expected to hear a peep of agreement from Baby Tooth, but he didn't. The only thing that greeted his hearing was silence. Jack's confidence in what he was about to go do wavered a little as he looked around the immediate area. "Baby Tooth?" No answer, and there was no flash of a blur that signaled her arrival, not her cheerful chirps upon seeing him. Jack felt a flash of fear race through him, and he quickly fought it down. Baby Tooth was fine. She probably just went to tell Tooth or one of the other Guardians what was going on, when Pitch had thrown him back into the nightmare.

Jack was about to go to the Tooth Place, when he wondered if perhaps Baby Tooth had gone to go and see Bunnymund, as the guardian of hope had said that he may have been able to find a way to block the nightmares for a short time. Jack decided to head there first. If nothing else, he could tell Bunnymund what had transpired, and that something had to be done now, before Pitch could render him a completely useless, emotional mess.

Jack went to the clearing near the pond in Burgess, and glanced up at the late morning sky, "Hey, wind!" Jack felt a weak breeze, and the winter spirit felt the first stirrings of unease, before a stronger breeze buffeted him. Jack let out a sigh of relief as he took to the wind and made his way to the Warren. That had frightened him a little bit. Jack was glad that he hadn't lost control over his powers while awake. That would have been a terrible loss. Jack was, however, exhausted, and he chalked it up to the how real the nightmare he had been having was, and that because of it, he wasn't feeling very rested.

Within minutes, Jack reached the Warren, and entered one of the tunnels, walking along it at a leisurely pace. He soon entered the main area of the Warren. Jack felt the sense of unease again, the feeling that something was wrong, when he found the Warren completely deserted. There wasn't any sign of the stone egg guards, or even any of the little eggs that were used for the Easter egg hunt. That was really strange. Had Pitch began to bother the other Guardians as well? Where was Bunnymund?

"Hey! Bunny! Where are you?" Jack flew along the drafts of wind lightly as he searched the Warren, checking every tunnel. Nothing. Not a hint of life, other than the lush landscape around him. As a last ditch attempt to draw Bunny out if he was there, Jack waved his staff and froze several of the walls near the tunnels, "Hey! Bunny! I'm frosting up your Warren. Better come and kick me out like you said you would!"

Jack started to get concerned when there was no annoyed scolding. Just silence. Something was very wrong, and Jack needed to find out what that was. Jack left the Warren, and headed to the North Pole, worried about what he was going to find when he got there. Even the cold weather of the North Pole didn't give Jack any comfort as he glided down on the wind to come to a light halt at the entrance to the castle in the mountains. Jack felt his anxiety start to rise as he didn't spot Phil or any of the other yetis that sometimes guarded the entrance. Jack hurried indoors, and what he found inside caused him to come to a complete halt, and just stand there for a long while to gawk at what he saw.

No one was there. The toys were strewn about on the work benches and table, as if the yetis had just decided to take a unanimous break. There wasn't even the telltale sound of the exasperated grunting and growling that the yetis let out on occasion. Most unnerving of all was that there was no jingling coming from the countless elves that lived there. Not even one odd chime. No booming laughter from North, or even any sign of the other Guardian.

Jack glanced up anxiously at the globe, and was relieved to find that it was still glowing with all of the children who believed in the Guardians. Nothing could really be that bad if all the lights were still there, but that didn't explain why there was still no one in the Warren or the North Pole. It was so bizarre, and Jack didn't like it one bit.

Jack left the creepily silent North Pole, and soared through the sky quickly to reach the Tooth Palace, a feeling of dread taking place in his gut as he wondered what he was going to find there. Jack arrived shortly thereafter, and wasn't at all surprised to find the place completely deserted, even though he had dearly hoped he wouldn't find it to be so.

Jack flew around in a slow spiral, until he finally landed near the mural. He shook his head in bewilderment. That was odd. Had children really lost a lot of teeth that day or something? Nothing seemed wrong with the Palace itself, as the structure was not decaying like it had when a lot of children had started to lose their belief in the Tooth Fairy. Nothing could be wrong then, right? Jack couldn't stand to stay very long at the silent Tooth Palace, as he was so used to finding it thrumming with activity. The fluttering of wings and the chirping voices of the many Baby Teeth.

With that feeling of dread slowly growing, Jack flew around in search for the Sandman. As he didn't have any specific home that Jack knew of, it was harder to try and locate the silent Guardian. After what seemed like hours of searching that took him all the way into late evening, Jack had no luck discovering the Sandman. The desperation within Jack grew. Had Pitch done something to the Guardians? After all, Jack couldn't find a way to the Boogeyman's lair this time around, and Jack supposed that Pitch would make it hard for Jack to locate the Guardians, if this was his doing. It would just figure that Pitch would do something like this in his waking hours. Maybe it had been to much to hope that Pitch would leave the rest of the Guardians alone after all. Maybe Pitch wasn't satisfied from his fear alone.

Jack hesitated in midair. If Pitch had done something to the Guardians, did that mean…did that mean he would go after Jamie too? He wouldn't. The avalanche that had happened in the nightmare had been devastating and Jack didn't think he could stand Pitch tormenting the child while he was awake. It would be horrible. Jack rushed to Burgess as fast as he could through the sky, and found, as he arrived at Jamie's home with a stumble out of the sky, that no one was home. Jack rested a hand against the house windows as he peered inside. Nope. Deserted. Were they out for the day, maybe, on a family trip? A quick check around the rest of the town made Jack's spirit fall quickly. No one was in town. There was no sign of anyone. No one getting food during a break from work. No one out shopping. There weren't even people wandering aimlessly around the street, and Jack could spot no children racing about and playing.

In fact, as far as Jack could tell, he was the only person around. What was going on? Pitch couldn't make an entire town disappear just to scare the hell out of him, would he? Before Jack could think abut the implications of this idea, he heard the soft laughter of Pitch sound close by. Jack whirled about, staff at the ready. No one was there. The chuckle sounded again, but Jack couldn't find the source, as he turned his head this way and that. Where was Pitch?

Pitch's laughter died down, and his voice was quiet clear as it resounded around Jack, "As entertaining as I find it that you created all this to escape from your troubles, I'm going to have to insist that you wake up and stay awake this time. It's rather tiring how you're trying to avoid reality. I didn't quite realize what you were up to for some time."

Jack tried and failed to locate Pitch, and the winter spirit laughed in response to the Nightmare King's words, "What are you talking about? I already am awake."

Pitch chuckled delightedly, still unseen, "Are you serious? Did you honestly believe that you were in a nightmare with me pulling the strings the whole time? How mistaken you are, Frost. I didn't realize that you still truly believe that that was only a nightmare."

Jack felt a thrill of foreboding at the seriousness in Pitch's voice, "Stop it, Pitch. I'm tired of you messing with my head."

Pith sounded absolutely beside himself with unrestrained mirth, "Messing with your head? The only thing I've done to you is cast that spell of enslavement. You're the one who has been deluding yourself by running from the truth and burying yourself from facing it head on."

Jack swayed a little, as he realized that the evening in Burgess was darkening, and that shadows were starting to creep toward him. Jack took several steps back, but found that he was starting to feel weary, like something inside of him had broken. Dimly, Jack heard Pitch speak again.

"I won't let you traipse here for respites anymore, Frost. It defeats the whole purpose."

"The whole purpose of what?" Jack demanded, but there was no response from Pitch, and Jack gasped as darkness suddenly came crashing down to envelope him in its shadowy embrace.

Jack felt his eyes open, and there was a stab of dread in his chest. He was back in the nightmare again, as he found that he couldn't move his body. The spell...Jack's eyes darted to Pitch's, demanding an explanation for this, as the pale teen was incapable of speaking now, due to the spell.

Pitch chuckled as he noted the look in Jack's eyes, "Think you're back in the nightmare, Jack? No, I assure you, this is quite real. It seems you took it a bit hard from killing your friends while under my control, so you've been retreating into your mind this whole time." Pitch grinned as horror sparked in Jack's eyes, "I could understand the first time you went off to that dream of yours. It was an odd reaction to such a violent day. So, I had a Nightmare go to your dream to spy on you a little, and then have it come tell me what was going on. I figured you were reeling from what you had done, so I didn't really pay it any mind. It was just a harmless little dream of trying to reassure yourself that I wouldn't _possibly_ go so far as to follow through on my threats."

Jack gulped, realizing that when he had first woken from the nightmare, that he had seen a Nightmare, and had fled from it. And then again, when he woke up in Pitch's lair, where the Nightmares were watching him, but not attacking. Jack hadn't thought too much about this little detail before, as he had dismissed it as unimportant.

Pitch began to slowly circle Jack, his grin slipping into something more dark, "It was only after that avalanche and I saw you fall asleep again that I wondered what could possibly be going on in that little mind of yours, so I sent more Nightmares to find out. Once I realized what was going on, I had quite a bit of fun." Pitch smirked at the immobile winter spirit, "You do realize what that means, don't you?"

"No…" Jack managed to mumble, so in shock that he had forgotten for the tiniest instant that he was still under the control of Pitch's spell. Jack was currently more concerned with trying to find some way, any way, to deny what Pitch was telling him. It had to be a nightmare. It couldn't be real, because that would mean…that would mean that he had actually…had actually…

Pitch saw the look of terrified realization in Jack's eyes, and the Nightmare King clapped his hands in a mockery of applause, "There, you finally get it now, don't you? The reality you thought you were waking up to was in fact a dream world your mind made to escape from this 'nightmare', as you so foolishly continued to believe it to be, when in fact, it was your true reality." Pitch bared his teeth, "And now that those dreams are done with…" Pitch trailed off, loving the look of slowly dawning horror that was now taking place in Jack's eyes.

Jack wouldn't have been able to speak even had Pitch not had him under the spell, as his mind was currently buzzing and going back over the nightmares. If Jack had been in control of his body, he would have dropped to the ground and started to scream in denial. But he couldn't do anything, and Jack could only begin to realize that now that Pitch had total control over him, that he was going to be forced to endure more of the 'nightmare' he had believed himself to be in. And that there would be no escape until Pitch decided to be done with him.

"Come along now, Jack. I've fallen a bit behind schedule with your little trip away from reality." Pitch turned away, knowing that he didn't have to worry about Jack running off on him now.

Jack was unable to do anything other than follow along after Pitch with no protest. Jack was still numb with disbelief. He couldn't believe it…there had to be some kind of mistake. Pitch had to be stringing him along somehow…but…then Jack remembered all of the subtle warnings that he had received from his fellow Guardians. Especially from North and Bunnymund. Why hadn't Jack listened to them? Their warnings made perfect sense now, even if they had been a little vague.

As Jack felt Pitch's hand drop down onto one of his shoulders, Jack could only regret that he didn't listen to the warnings he had recieved. That he should have done something before it came to this.

A living nightmare with no hope for escape.

X-x-x

Pitch's triumphant mood over the next several years seemed to be so much more worse than when Jack had gone through them half aware.

Jack knew it was likely because Pitch was so pleased that the winter spirit had finally realized the truth. The terrible truth that what Jack thought were his waking hours had in fact been the dream all along. Now that that had sunk in, Jack found he could no longer come up with any reason to deny it.

However, at this point in time, Jack was beginning to become aware that he was starting to feel a bit drained. It was as if Pitch was siphoning too much fear from him lately. Pitch had make it quite clear that he found Jack's fear to be the best that he had ever encountered in his long years of existence, especially after Jack' misconceptions about reality had been cleared up. However, between that drawing of fear, and the mentally taxing toll on his mind of scaring the children, Jack started to realize that his body just couldn't keep up. The physical weariness of always being on the move, and doing something so distasteful as frightening children sometimes made Jack wish he would just fade from existence so he wouldn't be forced to endure it any longer.

Jack's energy was finally at an end, as a couple of months ago, the last few children that had believed in him and the rest of the Guardians had been extinguished, and the pain of no more belief was a massive backlash to Jack's whole body. What made the pale teen's fear rise even further was the fact that he was unable to communicate just how much of a toll the lack of belief had taken on him, and Jack was unable to tell Pitch that he needed a break to try and attempt to recover. He might have recovered a little, had even a few people believed in him, but Pitch was the only one being believed in now. All of Jack's deeds done under Pitch's direction were thought to be caused by the boogeyman himself. No belief and no rest was wearing the pale teen very thin, and Jack believed that without the spell, he would have already collapsed by now.

The weariness also stemmed from the fact that Jack could no longer retreat to the back of his mind to the actual dreams he had been having of his friends. Now that he didn't have that to fall back on when things became too much to handle, Jack was drawn further into despair as he was forced to live his nightmare with the realization that it had been his reality all along.

The sudden blurriness that appeared before Jack's vision that particular day was a welcome development, as he and Pitch had been about to terrify some children who had just gone back to cabins after hearing a scary camp fire story. The darkness that followed was also appreciated, as it meant that Jack had a break from seeing all the terrible things Pitch had been forcing him to do to scare the children. Freezing their feet with a thin bursts of frost. Making scary patterns appear in windows drawn in the frost. Causing cool breezes to scare those unaware of his presence. Causing chills to go up people's spines.

Jack could hear that there was some kind of muffled speaking overhead, likely from Pitch, which made Jack wonder if he had fallen over after all. The muffled speaking increased in its intensity, and Jack assumed that it was more than likely about how he was interrupting Pitch's schedule yet again. Jack, however, was deaf to whatever words the Nightmare King was saying, as something sounded in the haze of his mind that Jack hadn't heard in years.

The jingling of a sleigh. It was a distant but clear sound, and it slowly drained the fear from Jack as a warm feeling took its place. Jack felt the first stirrings of hope; of the thought that somehow this terrible thing he had been enduring would soon end.

Jack found himself plunging into complete darkness.

X-x-x

A/N: Here is a glimpse into the way my mind works aka how I came up with this travesty:

I have run across a few fics where terrible stuff happens to Jack and then he wakes up and it really was just a nightmare, and that was that.

I wanted to write something with a twist, where the character has the nightmare and wakes up, but doesn't realize for the longest time that the nightmare was actually the reality. I actually don't know if anyone has done this before, because I haven't had the chance to go through a lot of the other stories.

I did drop some subtle hints throughout the story, but subtle enough that people would more than likely overlook them:

_Number One:_ Jack only ever sees Pitch in the 'nightmare' and never while 'awake.' This only changes in chapter 11, when dream and reality blur. Jack also never sees the Guardians drive Pitch away when he 'wakes up', but Jack's mind is telling him that the only logical way that he could escape from the 'nightmare' was if one of the Guardians had driven Pitch away.

_Number Two:_ The same thing applies above for the Man in the Moon. Jack only ever looks up at the moon in the 'nightmare' and never looks at the moon when 'awake.'

_Number Three_: Jack sees Baby Tooth every time he 'wakes up' until chapter 11. The reasoning behind this would be that Jack thought that her death in the 'nightmare' had been cruel and utterly unnecessary.

_Number Four_: Jack only ever sees the Guardians one at a time when he is 'awake.' He tries to distance himself from reality by finding ways to help/hang out with/talk to the other Guardians, and eventually believes that the 'awake' state is obviously reality, because the 'nightmare' was just too terrible to ever be real. The Guardians were also trying to warn Jack to be careful.

_Number Five_: A little tidbit is when Jack is in the 'nightmare' and wondering how long he had been asleep had been a very, very tiny hint, but Jack immediately explains the feeling away, so it isn't as suspicious. Pitch realizes what is going on after the avalanche chapter, and tsks when Jack is trying to escape from the 'nightmare' at the end of chapter 10.

_Number Six_: In the text it is only stated in chapter three that he 'wakes up', and that is only because Jack truly believed that he had just had a bad nightmare. In chapters five, seven, nine and eleven, I think I avoided typing that Jack woke up, and that he only cried out or something, as a tiny hint that something was off.

Another small note is that this chapter is supposed to read a little shakily, as Jack is out of sorts at this point in time.

I don't know if my reasoning above makes much sense, but… this twist is the real reason why I was really horrified and 'crawling to hide under a rock,' so to speak, for writing the second (ch1) chapter of this story. I am actually on the edge of _my_ seat wondering what all your reactions will be to what I've just done with this story, and whether I've made it make sense or not. I appreciate the reviews I have gotten, as it makes me feel a little more bold about posting each new chapter. But this one...I don't know...

And as an FYI, I'll be posting the epilogue after work tomorrow, because my eyes litterally can't focus on the computer screen anymore tonight. Prepare for some tears, because I think the epilogue might potentially cause a few.

And with that little cliffhanger, I will digress and allow people to either love or hate the direction this story has suddenly taken.


	12. Epilogue: Fading

X-x-x

Pitch was quite looking forward to giving a few good scares and nightmares to some children that evening. Pitch's plans, however, were put on temporary hold when he sensed that Jack's fear was diminishing instead of increasing, like it normally had been when the two of them went out at night lately. The expected little inward struggle of Jack hating what was about to happen always amused Pitch. Jack would then resign himself to what would happen when he realized that he could do nothing to stop it, and that resignation would then inevitably spike into fear when the winter spirit actually scared a child. It was twisted of Pitch to enjoy it so much, but if Jack were going to keep being fearful, it was a bit hard to stop.

Pitch turned around, curious as to what had caused the drop in fear. Jack looked weary, like he had been the past few weeks, but this time he looked about ready to topple over. Pitch let out a soft sigh of exasperation. He wasn't in any mood to have to take care of Jack like he had when he had wounded him with his scythe. That had wasted a lot of time, and Pitch had felt slightly lower in power at that time while he waited in the frigid land for Jack to recover. Pitch stalked over toward the winter spirit, wondering if perhaps the spell was finally starting to waver, or if something else was the matter. Pitch didn't think that he had put that much of a strain on Jack just yet.

Pitch moved at a slightly quicker pace when he saw Jack start to tip over, and caught the pale teen before he had the chance to fall to the ground. Pitch scowled down at the winter spirit in his arms, and noticed to his displeasure that Jack appeared to have drifted off into another dream. Pitch tsked in exasperation, as he settled Jack down on the ground on his back. Pitch sat down on the ground next to him with an exhalation of air, and studied the still being beside him. As interesting as Pitch had first found Jack's little retreat to within his mind whenever things became to much to handle, the Nightmare King found that he was growing quite bored of it. He couldn't extract fear from Jack very effectively if Jack continued to do this every time they went out to frighten children. It defeated the whole purpose of putting the spell on him in the first place and making Jack feel helpless as he was forced to help Pitch.

Pitch thought he would just sit there and wait for Jack wake up on his own, but he decided that he would have a little fun instead, and would reveal the winter spirit's misconceptions. A flash of bright light caught the corner of Pitch's eye, and he turned to grin broadly up at the moon in the sky, "Frustrated that you can't do anything from up there? I would appreciate it if you didn't constantly try and get Jack's attention every night. I'm trying to frighten him, and I can't do that very well when you keep trying to reassure him." Pitch turned from the moon, and the Nightmare King could have almost sworn that he had felt what seemed like rage and helplessness coming from the being on the moon. This put Pitch in a better mood, so that the little interruption for his plans that night didn't bother him as much.

Pitch glanced down at Jack again, and waved a hand over the pale teen's head, using nightmare sand to peer into Jack's dream. It was time to let Jack know what was really going on. Pitch saw Jack 'wake' up, and with a little twist of his hand, Pitch turned the dream into one that he could control. Pitch watched in sadistic satisfaction as Jack went to the Guardians homes in an attempt to locate them. The growing unease from the winter spirit was almost as nice as his fear. When Jack arrived back in Burgess, and realized that no one was there, Pitch couldn't help but laugh softly. Even now, Jack still had no idea that he was really in a dream. To Pitch's immense pleasure, Jack seemed to be able to hear him laughing, as the gray skinned man had spotted the pale teen drop into a defensive crouch, staff held out before him.

Pitch let his laughter die down as he spoke, projecting his voice into the dream, "As entertaining as I find it that you created all this to escape from your troubles, I'm going to have to insist that you wake up and stay awake this time. It's rather tiring how you're trying to avoid reality. I didn't quite realize what you were up to for some time."

A laugh sounded from within the dream, "What are you talking about? I already am awake."

Pitch blinked in surprise. Did Jack really honestly have no notion as to what had been happening to him? Oh, this was going to be so much fun to crush the pale teen's hopes. Pitch chuckled delightedly as he spoke, watching the dream Jack carefully, "Are you serious? Did you honestly believe that you were in a nightmare with me pulling the strings the whole time? How mistaken you are, Frost. I didn't realize that you still truly believe that that was only a nightmare."

"Stop it, Pitch. I'm tired of you messing with my head."

The uncomfortable sound in Jack's response to his words pleased the Nightmare King. The denial was such a wonderful thing to hear as well, even in a dream. Pitch was absolutely beside himself with unrestrained mirth, as he just couldn't believe that Jack was still desperately trying to find a way to believe that the dream he was currently in was real. Pitch shook his head as he responded with a note of disbelief in his voice, "Messing with your head? The only thing I've done to you is cast that spell of enslavement. You're the one who has been deluding yourself by running from the truth and burying yourself from facing it head on." Pitch waved a hand over the nightmare sand swirling lazily above Jack's head, and caused shadows to appear within the dream. Pitch watched as the winter spirit tried to retreat, and he smiled pleasantly even though he knew that Jack's dream self couldn't see him, "I won't let you traipse here for respites anymore, Frost. It defeats the whole purpose."

"The whole purpose of what?"

Pitch sent the shadows to surround Jack, and knew that it would be enough to wake the the pale teen from his mini retreat from reality. And once Jack was awake, Pitch would reveal to him that everything he had thought had been a nightmare was in fact reality, and what he had thought was reality was really just a dream his mind had made for him to try and protect himself from facing the truth.

But Pitch would make Jack face that truth, whether the winter spirit wanted to or not.

X-x-x

Pitch was delighted that Jack had all but lost the will to fight once he finally realized the truth, so the next several years were simply wonderful. The feeling of power was strong within the Nightmare King, and forcing the pale teen to help him scare the children always brought forth such delicious fear from Jack. Pitch really couldn't remember sensing a fear so potent in all of the years he had been around, and by telling that to Jack, the winter spirit's fear had increased substantially. For the Boogeyman telling him that meant that Jack wouldn't be leaving his control anytime soon. Not while Pitch could amuse himself with drawing on Jack's fears.

One night Pitch was studying a group of children seated around a campfire, all of whom were hanging on to every word their camp leader was telling them. Pitch thought that it was a rather good scary story, and he listened to the ending to see the children's reactions. One child in particular looked about ready to run away screaming. After a quick glance in Jack's direction to assure himself that the other was there, Pitch transferred his gaze back to the children as the camp leader finished his story.

"...and so, after that, no one walked these woods alone. It has even been said that you can feel an icy wind, or the touch of something unseen. So people that come here are warned to never be alone, because that is when this force of darkness strikes, to drag an individual off to be...devoured."

The children shrieked with fright at the conclusion of the tale, before they all started to laugh nervously as they bid the camp leader good night and headed back to their cabins in a close-knit group.

Pitch's golden gaze followed the children briefly, before he turned to Jack with a faint smile, pleased when he saw resignation in the winter spirit's eyes, instead of the usual disgust that was usually there when they frightened the children directly. Pitch inclined his head in the direction of the children, and started to walk off, knowing that Jack would follow soon after.

But what Pitch didn't know was that things were about to change, and he would have no one to blame but himself as that change came to pass.

Pitch never gave much thought to what would happen to Jack once the children stopped believing in the Guardians completely. Nor did Pitch consider the repercussions of not giving Jack a chance to recuperate from that loss. Pitch only realized that something was amiss with Jack when, instead of following after him, Jack had collapsed to the ground after taking only a few steps.

Pitch changed direction mid-step, and approached the fallen winter spirit, lifting a foot to nudged him lightly in the side, "Frost? I don't ever recall telling you to take a break. Did you find some resistance in you after all these years? Even after learning the truth? It seems a little too late for that, don't you think?" Pitch scowled down at Jack now, disappointed that he'd have to break the spell he'd had on Jack for the past many years, to see what was going on. Had Jack gotten injured and he hadn't noticed? The Nightmare King could just wait here the night for Jack to stir, but Pitch knelt next to Jack as he decided to check the other for any obvious sign of injury to move things along.

As Pitch's hand hovered over Jack's shoulder, the Boogeyman suddenly noticed a loss of fear amongst the fear he could already sense from the children nearby. Pitch dismissed it, thinking someone had just gone to sleep and therefore had stopped being fearful. Nothing to worry about. It wasn't like there were any Guardians around to disrupt things. Pitch ran a hand along Jack's shoulder, frowning. That was strange. Why wasn't he sensing any fear from Jack? It had been there until just moments ago. Ah, there, a tiny bit of a feeling, sadness, however, instead of fear. Pitch tilted his head, and cautiously shook Jack's shoulder, "What are you up to, Frost?" There was no menace behind the Nightmare King's words, but what almost could be considered a twinge of concern. Not for Jack's well-being, but for the fact that Pitch wasn't ready to let go of his enemy quite yet.

Pitch frowned down at Jack as he tried to figure out what was going on with the other. Pitch had thought that, after maybe another year or two of dragging Jack around to help him scare the children around the world, that he would release Jack from the spell. Another year or two would guarantee Pitch's hold on the grip of fear that he had caused throughout the world. After that, Pitch had planned to leave Jack alone to let him attempt to recover from what had been done to him. Pitch assumed that Jack would want to lash out at him for doing such an evil thing to him, and the two of them would eventually battle.

Pitch would never had admitted it aloud to anyone, but he missed their mock battles when they had crossed paths over the years. And if they did have a battle, if Jack recovered even the slightest bit, Pitch was uncertain whether he would win the fight or not. Either way, Pitch would again back off, and maybe in the time that followed the Man in the Moon would help Jack in his recovery by naming new Guardians to help Jack struggle out of his emotional trauma. Pitch could use some new opponents. Someone to clash with other than Jack Frost. Pitch had found, over the past many years that no competition, while initially fun, had become quite boring. It had been far too easy to draw all the children into fear after the Guardians had been destroyed and to make Jack basically into a puppet for him to order around. It had been enjoyable while it lasted, but now Pitch was starting to finally realize something. That with no one to foil his plans, things just weren't as challenging anymore.

Pitch turned his attention back to the still form of Jack, beginning to feel a little prickle of anxiety. He'd worry about things like that later. At the moment, Pitch didn't even want to entertain the notion that Jack was dying. It was the only possible explanation as to why the spell had wavered in the first place. The strain of the spell, and scaring the children had taken more of a toll on Jack than Pitch had initially realized. Pitch supposed that the late Guardians didn't exactly die so much as fade away from existence, but to Pitch, it seemed basically the same thing. An end to the supposed immortality given to them, and perhaps himself. Pitch wasn't sure how long he'd be around, considering the shadows had possessed him in the first place. Pitch shook his head. Something to think about another time.

Pitch would find himself waiting on the snowy ground by Jack for quite a long while, but nothing he could do would change what he had done. The Nightmare Kings's idea for the future would never come to pass, no matter how much he willed it.

"Jack?"

Pitch was soon to find himself alone in the world, and he would be at a loss of what to do for a long time.

X-x-x

Jack couldn't see anything, and while the darkness that now surrounded him had initially scared him, Jack found that it didn't feel as threatening as Pitch's shadows. This fact relaxed Jack the tiniest amount. He could still hear the jingling from before, when he had first begun to see the darkness cross his vision. Jack strained to keep his failing attention on the clear sound, until he recognized it to be the jingling from a sleigh. Something that he hadn't heard in years. Jack felt himself relax further as he listened to the soothing chime of the bells. Jack's whole concentration was focused on that sound, and he soon began to hear something within the ringing of the bells. It was almost as if...as if something were calling out. Several voices, in fact, and Jack realized with a jolt that those voices were calling out to him specifically. The voices became a little clearer, like the bells, and soon words could be heard, laced with sadness, but with an underlying note of hope beneath it.

"Jack? Is that you?"

"Jack? You there, mate?"

"You hear us, no?"

Since Jack had previous bad experience in following disembodied voices, he hesitated. He wondered if this was some sick trick of Pitch's, to further distress and scare him. The darkness all around the winter spirit made him think so, but Jack couldn't sense Pitch's presence here at all. So...did that mean that it wasn't a trick? Jack felt a presence suddenly appear near him, and a voice spoke, sounding close to him, this one recognizable.

"Jack?"

Jamie…Jack wanted to see the boy, to apologize for failing to protect him. Instead, Jack felt a calm fall over him, and he heard Jamie speak again.

"I knew you tried to help, Jack. It's okay, me and my friends aren't mad at you." Jack felt a ghosting of hands against his back, and felt himself being guided gently in the direction of the ringing sleigh bells and the voices, "Jack, go on, they're waiting for you. Listen, can't you hear them?"

Jack tuned back into the ringing bells and the voices that mixed in with it. Somehow, the longer Jack listened to them, the more relief he felt, as if he was finally out of Pitch's reach for good. The idea that Pitch couldn't harm him any more emboldened Jack, and he allowed himself to drift away from Jamie's fading presence, and toward the voices, where they became even clearer and more recognizable.

"Everything will be all right."

"We're here."

"Is okay, Jack. We wait for you. You let go now."

Jack's heart rose in happiness as he finally recognized the voices and just who they belonged to. It was the Guardians. Tooth. Bunnymund. North. And though he couldn't see them, Jack could almost feel the beaming smile of Sandy, and a little chirp from Baby Tooth, further comforting him as he drifted along in the darkness. Jack gave a little smile, or at least he thought he did, as he listened to the voices of his friends calling him to them. Then, Jack did as North had told him to. He let go, and it was a wonderful feeling of freedom as all of the remaining pain and fear inside of him vanished.

Then Jack Frost knew no more.

X-x-x

Since I've been getting really honest reviews, I would appreciate some opinions on how this story turned out as a whole.

I did say in the very beginning that this was not going to be a happy fanfic. I actually wrote the very last bit of this epilogue a few months ago as an ending for this fanfic that I never thought I would actually post. How depressing is that?

And on that note, I'm going to go curl up in a corner and think about what I've done (while at the same time thinking I really want to write another psychological mindf*ck story in the future).


End file.
